Raduan Md Taib

PNB, Khazanah to transfer 10 businesses to Bumis

2012-02-09T22:16:00.000+08:00

PUTRAJAYA: Permodalan Nasional Berhad and Khazanah Nasional will sell or outsource 10 non-core businesses to suitable bumiputra companies to increase Bumiputra equity, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

He said the bumiputra companies would be selected from among the 80 high-performing companies through an open tender process.

Najib said this, along with other announcements, after chairing the Bumiputera Agenda Action Council meeting at his office.

“We will request PNB and Khazanah to undergo a divestment process on their non-core businesses, which have a potential to be managed by qualified Bumiputra companies,” Najib said.

The number of high-performing companies, known as Teras, were selected based on their field of business.
The Teras companies, said Najib, were given assistance to boost their management, financial, and technological abilities.

He also announced the appointment of Raja Azura Raja Mahayuddin as the chief executive officer of a multi-million dollar education foundation for Bumiputra students to be funded by corporate sponsors.

BROAD ECONOMIC ECOSYSTEM TO INCREASE NUMBER OF BUMI VENDORS

2011-11-28T17:50:00.005+08:00

Broad economic ecosystem to increase number of Bumi vendors

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 26, 2011): The government will create a broad economic ecosystem encompassing big Bumiputera companies to help increase the number of Bumiputera vendors, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.
He said the creation of the ecosystem would help increase the participation of more Bumiputera companies.
Najib, who is also Finance Minister, said to be effective, one important factor which has to be considered was that a contract awarded to a Bumiputera firm has to give a reasonable margin.
"I would like to remind big corporations, whether government- or private-sector owned, not to take lightly this matter," he said at the launch of the 'Bumiputera Economic Transformation: A Roadmap' document here today.
Najib also announced the setting up of a Bumiputera unit in MRT Corp, a company under Minister of Finance Inc.
He said the unit, with the cooperation of Peneraju Agenda Bumiputer (Teraju), would select qualified Bumiputera under myMRT project.
On the Bumiputera Economic Transformation Roadmap, Najib said, it would encompass policies and strategies to correct the current imbalance in income and wealth distribution.
"The aim is to ensure that when Malaysia achieves its Wawasan 2020 target, the participation of Bumiputeras in the economy will be equal, especially in the high-growh sectors, high-income jobs and ownership of big firms.
"The roadmap outlines policy, strategy and special initiatives to strengthen Bumiputera economy," said Najib, who is also Umno president.
He said the country needed to undertake various transformations in line with global developments.
These included Government Transformation Programme, Economic Transformation Programme, Political Transformation Programme and Rural Areas Transformation Programme which were undertaken under 1Malaysia principle of 'People First, Performance Now'.
Najib said although transformation roadmap involved only Bumiputeras the benefits would be enjoyed by all Malaysians.
"The Bumiputeras form the biggest majority of the population and when the Bumiputera economy grows, they would also have strong buying power.
"They would also form joint ventures with non-Bumiputera firms and buy from them," he said.
The prime minister said the 'Bumiputera Economic Transformation: A Roadmap', a dynamic 'living document', would be continuously updated to ensure it was relevant with the changing socio-economic landscape locally and globally.
The roadmap aimed to achieve maximum impact in the shortest time possible, he said.
Najib said the continued implementation of the New Economic Policy (NEP) has helped reduce the poverty rate, raise the equity participation of Bumiputeras in the corporate sector and increase the number of Bumiputera professionals.
"Although the NEP has been a success, imbalances still exist.
"The Bumiputera participation in the economy is still not in accordance their numbers," he said.
Najib said although the Bumiputera households make up 65%, the majority of them was in the low-income group.
Bumiputera equity holding (based on par value) in listed companies was at 21.9% in 2008, he said.
"It has not reached the targetted 30%. Thus a big shift is needed to raise the Bumiputera equity overall," he said.
He said the launch of the roadmap would serve as a starting point to lift the Bumiputera economy and the community to greater heights.
The roadmap has three strategic focus – reform of policy instruments and rationalisation of delivery system; strengthening education and building capabilities; and acquiring, creating or developing businesses with sufficient scale.
It would be guided by six principles namely market-friendly, needs-based, merit-based, transparency, pro-growth and building sustainable competitiveness. – Bernama

WHAT FOSTERS THE SPIRIT OF INNOVATION?

2011-11-28T17:09:00.002+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR: What fosters the spirit of innovation? The answers point to an encouraging environment and putting Malaysia into context, there is much to be done at the home, education and corporate levels to create an environment fertile for sowing the seeds of unconventional thinking.
That was the main take-away from the second Merdeka Award Roundtable last week, featuring group chief executive of AirAsia Bhd Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, Malaysian Invention and Design Society president Tan Sri Dr Augustine Ong Soon Hock and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Zaini Ujang.
The award was founded by energy companies Petronas, ExxonMobil and Shell in 2007 where award recipients will receive a certificate and RM500,000 cash award for each of five categories.
“(Innovation) is not something you can teach or programme. It is creating a lot of little ecosystems to make sure (the environment is right) and culture does play a part in this,” Fernandes said, kicking off the discussion on “Cultivating a culture of innovation in challenging times.”

Sharing ideas: (from left) Zaini, Ong and Fernandes at the second Merdeka Award Roundtable. The discussion was hosted by Astro Awani’s Norina Yahya

Of the education system, Fernandes said the focus on books had overwhelmed the development in other areas that build thought leaders.
“When we look at some of the great leaders, they are all rounded. Our schools have lost a lot by focusing on academics only,” he said.
Fernandes believed that while the Government should foster innovation as well as trust the people and allow ideas, education is the key to take Malaysia to the next level. He opined that bringing back arts, culture and sport would change the way the future generation thinks.
“A successful education system should be about bringing out the best in children and giving them the ability to experiment and try all sorts of things and turn that raw diamond into a polished diamond,” he said.
As a parent, he believed that it was important to “expose the children to as many things as possible and allow them to go where they want.”
At the corporate level, he added that there was also a culture of subordination in Malaysia that hampered creative output: “When you go against the norm in Malaysia, you can be whacked. It's sometimes seen as insubordinate or questionable when you challenge the norm.”
“That's the culture. Malaysians are an innovative lot but sometimes we need to praise innovation by creating the environment,” he said, adding that the success stories of Malaysian innovation were not sung often enough.
“We don't hear enough of the success stories. A lot of our technology came from Malaysians and we need to show that the commercialisation of these ideas have come to fruition,” he said.
During the discussion, Fernandes also revealed that the flat structure in AirAsia's management was the “secret weapon” for its success in the industry. He said that communication flow relied on organisation structure.
“If you have a hierarchical organisation, the people who have ideas are sometimes too scared to speak up. (But) it's all right to give ideas, it's all right to talk,” he said of the potentially stifling hierarchical organisation structures in many Malaysian companies.
“I always say I would rather have 9,000 brains working with me than just 10,” he said, adding on that “if you create an environment where everyone feels equal and there's freedom of expression (among all levels of employees), that provides a very powerful machine.”
However, innovating per se should not be the end goal too.
Ong, who is also a former member of the Merdeka Award Health, Science and Technology Committee, said there needed to be market-driven innovations to encourage worthwhile creations.
“When you have innovation for a market that is not ready for it, that becomes a problem,” he said.
“We should also look at what our country has a niche in. We should concentrate on areas where we already have good industries going on where innovation can bring some results,” he added, saying that foreign areas like nuclear energy may not be an ideal area to innovate since the country had yet to develop its know-how and infrastructure.
In terms of getting academicians engaged with market-centric needs, Zaini said UTM had a professorship scheme with Proton Holdings Bhd where professors were positioned at the company to spur on-the-ground projects with the staff.
“We target to have 100 patents under Proton per year from this industrial PhD,” the former Merdeka Award recipient said, highlighting the university's market-relevant endeavours through the reverse flow of ideas from the market into academia.
The roundtable will be broadcast on Astro Awani in early December.

MANDAILING PEOPLES

2011-11-27T11:53:00.000+08:00

The Mandailing is a traditional cultural group in Southeast Asia. They are found mainly in the northern section of the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. They came under the influence of the Kaum Padri who ruled the Minangkabau of Tanah Datar. As a result, the Mandailing were influenced by Muslim culture and converted to Islam. Previous to their conversion, they practised Hinduism and Parmalim (Batak native religion). There are also a group of Mandailing in Malaysia, especially in the states of Selangor and Perak. They are closely related to the Angkola, who are mixed between Muslim and Christian adherents.

[edit] Etymology
The etymology of 'Mandailing' is said to be a coupounding of the words mande, meaning 'mother', and hilang, meaning 'lost'. Thus, the name is said to mean "lost mother". Some research has suggested that the Mandailing are the descendants of the Batak, who migrated to the south before the coming of the Portuguese and Dutch colonisation of Sumatra. There they converted to Islam and intermarried with Minangkabau and the Malay peoples. Mandailing society is patriarchal, employing family names, or marga, in the same manner as the Batak, Simalungun, and Karo. The same marga can be found, such as Lubis, Nasution, Siregar, Hasibuan, Harahap, Dalimunthe (originally from Munthe), Matondang, Rangkuti, Parinduri, Pulungan, Rambe, Daulae(y), Pohan, Batubara (not to be confused with the Batu Bara people from the east coast of Sumatra), Barus and Hutajulu.

[edit] Region

Mandailing is the name of region Luat Mandailing, which is now almost in Mandailing Natal Regency in North Sumatra. The first group who came to this region were the Lubis, later followed by the Nasution, Siregar, Harahap and so forth. These groups migrated from the northern region, which now belongs to North Tapanuli Regency and Toba Samosir Regency. One of these groups, the Harahap, left, which makes their identification to the region difficult. Matondang, Rangkuti and Parinduri are the local groups s of Luat Mandailing. Harahap and Siregar dwell almost in Luat Angkola, which now belongs to South Tapanuli Regency, situated between Regency and North Tapanuli Regency.

[edit] Clarification

Some of Mandailing people refused to be considered as a part of Batak people. Even in 1930 and 2000 national census, the Indonesian government considered the Mandailings as a part of the Batak people.^[1] This may be because their languages are different from the Batak's. Also, it is reported that 98% of the Mandailing ethnic group are Muslim.

ROADMAP TO BOOST BUMIPUTRA ECONIC PARTICIPATION

2011-11-26T18:30:00.003+08:00

ROADMAP TO BOOST BUUMIPUTRA ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION

By By Eileen Ng |

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak launched the Bumiputera Economic Transformation Road map today to increase Bumiptera economic participation in the country.

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He said the strategic roadmap would incorporate a new dimension and approach to tackle the imbalance in income and wealth creation among Bumiputeras.
The roadmap is aimed at enhancing Bumiputera wealth creation and this could be achieved through three inter-related drivers: to earn higher income through better education and employment; to enhance and unlock the value of Bumiputera-owned assets and to enhance Bumiputera corporate ownership and control.
“The survival of the Bumiputeras depends on the success in implementing this transformation,” he said at the launch of the roadmap this morning.
Present at the function include deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, cabinet ministers and corporate leaders.
Najib assured that although the roadmap is aimed at Bumiputeras, Malaysians of all races would be able to enjoy its benefits.
He also assured that the government would continue to look into the needs of the 40 per cent low-income group which encompassed all races.

MEMAHAMI WASATIYYAH

2011-11-26T17:58:00.002+08:00

Memahami Wasatiyyah

Oleh DR MOHD. RIDHUAN TEE ABDULLAH

MENURUT Imam Mohamed Baianonie, istilah Arab, wasat, membawa tiga makna, iaitu to be moderate, to be in the middle, and to be the best. Therefore, when Allah s.w.t describes the Muslim Ummah as a nation that is Wasat, Allah means that we are moderate, we are an Ummah that is in the middle, and that we are the best nation. Atawasoot in an Islamic sense means that the Muslim should try his best to be moderate in all of his affairs, and he should keep away from extreme practices and making extreme statements.

Apabila membaca definisi di atas, berkata hati saya, alangkah hebatnya umat Islam jika mereka dapat menyelami dan memahami serta mempraktikkan konsep wasatiyyah ini. Maka, tidak hairanlah baru-baru ini, kami telah dipanggil oleh Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri untuk memperhalusi konsep ini. Saya amat bersyukur sekali kerana pimpinan negara mengajak rakyat bersama-sama berbincang sesuatu dasar sebelum ia dilaksanakan. Itulah sebenarnya jalan yang terbaik, kerana demokrasi itu adalah daripada rakyat untuk rakyat. Berilah peluang kepada suara keramat ini untuk menyuarakan pendapat. Pendapat mereka adalah pendapat akar umbi kerana mereka merakyat walaupun tidak menjadi wakil rakyat. Kekuatan rakyat yang terdiri daripada pelbagai latar belakang perlu digembleng, barulah kita boleh jadi kuat. Rasulullah s.a.w selalu menilai kekuatan dan meraikan pandangan para sahabat, walaupun Baginda seorang Rasul. Tanpa rakyat siapalah kita.

Pada saya, konsep ‘wasatiyyah’ ini bertepatan dengan gagasan 1Malaysia yang mahu melahirkan masyarakat berimbang (sederhana), berteraskan perlembagaan persekutuan. Seperti gagasan 1Malaysia, konsep ini bukanlah sama rata dan sama rasa atau terletak di tengah-tengah seperti tidak miskin atau tidak kaya, tidak terlalu panas atau terlalu sejuk, persimpangan antara syurga dan neraka, tidak pandai atau tidak bodoh yakni sederhana sahaja. Tuntutan ‘wasatiyyah’ mahukan kita menjadi umat yang terbaik. Boleh menjadi kaya-raya tetapi jangan sampai hilang pedoman sehingga lupa tanggungjawab kepada Maha Pencipta dan makhluk yang dicipta. Boleh membangun, jangan sampai pembangunan itu merosakkan akal budi manusia dan alam sekeliling.

The best way for a Muslim to behave is in moderation. In trying to explain the importance of moderation, Imaam Ibn Al-Atheer said: "Every good manner has two extreme and bad sides. For example, generosity, a good and moderate behavior, comes between two bad behaviors, on one side stinginess and on other side overspending. Braveness, another good and moderate behavior, comes between two bad behaviors on one side cowardness and on other side carelessness. So humans have been ordered to avoid all bad behaviors; by staying away from two bad behaviors, a person will be exactly in the middle which is the farthest point from each extreme." (Imam Mohamed Baianonie, 2010)

Malangnya, tatkala kita sedang memperhalusi konsep ini, belum apa-apa lagi MCA telah membuat tuntutan dua kerusi senator yang telah ditinggalkan oleh dua ahli jawatan kuasa mereka yang telah dilantik sebelum ini. Pada MCA kerusi senator itu hak mereka, mesti diganti setelah disokongkan atas apa jua alasan. Sabarlah dahulu. Berilah Perdana Menteri untuk memikirkan siapa yang layak dilantik sebagai senator. Saudara baru seperti Cina Muslim pun ramai juga, malah melebihi bilangan artis, tetapi mereka tidak pernah mendesak kerajaan BN untuk memberikan kerusi senator, walaupun minoriti lain yang jauh lebih kecil juga mendapat kerusi senator. Ini kerana, kita menghormati keputusan kerajaan untuk melantik mereka yang benar-benar layak, bukan berasaskan kepada kuota parti semata-mata. Jika berasaskan kuota, ramai lagi yang layak. Jangan terlalu memikirkan bangsa sendiri yang mahukan more power more say, tidakkah lebih baik kita perkasakan dulu kekuatan dalaman dan moral parti, more integrity more say.

Begitu juga dengan MIC, tidak semena-mena parti nyamuk ini mahu mengkaji kedudukan mereka dalam BN gara-gara kumpulan serpihan yang tidak sehaluan dengan pimpinan mereka, Gerakan Anti Samy (GAS). Mereka menuduh UMNO bersubahat dengan GAS untuk menjatuhkan presiden mereka. MIC merasakan diri mereka terlalu kuat. Apakah mereka tidak sedar bahawa selama ini parti nyamuk inilah yang paling bernasib baik? Tidak ada kawasan yang mereka adalah majoriti tetapi wakil mereka tetap ada dalam dewan rakyat dan dewan negara serta berjawatan dalam kabinet. Majoriti Melayu sanggup memejam mata mengundi mereka dengan menafikan calon sendiri, semata-mata untuk menjaga semangat setiakawan. Ini tidak termasuk bilangan rumah ibadat yang begitu banyak berselerak dan penguasaan ekonomi beberapa bandar strategik yang diwakilinya sehingga mengenepikan pribumi. Selain daripada Kelang, cuba tinjau di pasar Hutan Melintang, Bagan Datoh, boleh dikatakan dikuasai mereka sepenuhnya. Maklumlah wakil rakyat mereka terdiri daripada ultra kiasu.

Kita janganlah terlampau ultra kiasu. Parti komponen BN ini tidak wajar bertindak seolah-olah seperti atau mewakili suara parti ultra kiasu. Cubalah bersyukurkan dengan apa yang ada, yang mungkin tidak ada pada orang lain, tetapi ada pada kita. Janganlah terlampau mengada-ngada kerana ia bertentangan dengan konsep wasatiyyah atau berimbang, konsep baru yang akan diperkenalkan dan selalu disebut-sebut oleh Perdana Menteri. Mungkin ada kalangan kita yang tidak memahami istilah Arab ini.

Pada saya, konsep ini juga selari dengan tuntutan semua agama, tidak hanya kepada agama Islam. Lawan kepada wasatiyyah adalah ultra atau ekstrim, termasuk kumpulan ultra kiasu. Kita tidak boleh terlalu mengejar dunia sehingga mengabaikan akhirat. Begitu juga sebaliknya, terlalu mengejar akhirat, terhingga melupakan dunia. Apapun, kena berimbang. Nabi pernah menegurkan beberapa sahabat yang terlalu mementingkan akhirat sehingga melupakan nikmat dunia, misalnya tidak mahu berkahwin kerana ada yang menganggap perkahwinan itu hanyalah mainan dunia sehingga boleh melalaikan tanggungjawabnya kepada pencipta. Tetapi Nabi juga berkahwin, bermakna dunia adalah jambatan ke akhirat. Jadikanlah kehidupan dunia sebagai yang terbaik untuk mendapat habuan di akhirat.

Kisah berikut sepatutnya menjadi panduan kepada kita semua. Diriwayatkan oleh Imam al-Bukhari, suatu hari Salman al-Farisi menziarahi Abu Darda’, yang dipersaudarakan oleh Nabi dengannya ketika sampai di Madinah. Beliau dapati isteri Abu Darda’ berada dalam keadaan tidak terurus dan kusut masai, lalu Salman pun bertanya: “Mengapa dengan engkau ini?” “Saudaramu tidak lagi menghiraukan kemewahan dunia ini,” jawabnya. Bila Abu Darda’ datang, dia menyambut kedatangan Salman dan menjamunya makanan. Salman menyuruhnya makan tetapi Abu Darda’ berkata: “Aku sedang berpuasa”. Salman berkata: “Aku bersumpah tidak akan makan kecuali engkau juga memakannya.” Salman bermalam di rumah Abu Darda’. Ketika tengah malam, Abu Darda’ bangun, tetapi Salman memegangnya dan menyuruhnya tidur, lalu Abu Darda’ pun tidur semula. Sebelum malam berakhir, Salman mengejutkan Abu Darda’ dan mereka berdua bertahajud. Lalu berkata Salman: “Hai Abu Darda’! Tuhanmu mempunyai hak ke atasmu. Keluargamu mempunyai hak ke atasmu dan dirimu juga mempunyai hak ke atasmu. Maka berikanlah hak kepada masing-masingnya.” Kemudian, mereka keluar menemui Rasulullah s.a.w dan menceritakan kisah yang telah berlaku. Rasulullah s.a.w menyokong perbuatan Salman itu.

Pendek kata, mendapatkan yang terbaik itu dalam kehidupan seharian, dalam apa jua bidang, tanpa melupakan tanggungjawab kita kepada Pencipta dan juga sesama manusia, serta menjaga segala amanahNya di muka bumi ini, bersekali dengan amar makruf nahi mungkar, adalah dalam lingkungan maksud wasatiyyah atau berimbang. Negara maju berteraskan integriti dan moral yang tinggi akan dapat dilahirkan. Barulah kita merealisasikan maksud Baldatun Thayyibatun Wa Rabbun Ghafuur negara makmur yang mendapat keampunan Allah s.w.t (surah Saba’, ayat 15).

Imam Ibnu Al-Qayyim sentiasa menggalakkan manusia supaya mengambil sikap moderat dan fundamental, karena akan menyelamatkan kita dari pelanggaran. Jadi, kita mendapatkan kedudukan tengah antara dua ekstrem yang paling seimbang dan adil, di mana seseorang akan menemui semua manfaat dan kemudahan hidup di dunia dan akhirat. Selain itu, bahkan tubuh manusia tidak boleh hidup normal tanpa manfaat moderasi. Jika seseorang sedang saat tidur, bangun, makan, minum, berolahraga, di tinggal pergi atau pencampuran dengan orang lain, maka tubuh akan berfungsi dengan baik. Namun, jika seseorang pergi kepada ekstrem pada salah satu aspek ini, maka tubuh tidak akan berfungsi dengan baik dan orang tidak akan hidup normal.
Imam Asy-Shaatibee pula berkata: “Semua hal Deen dan kewajipannya datang kepada manusia dalam cara yang paling moderat, sehingga orang boleh melaksanakan kewajipan tanpa kesulitan yang teruk atau terlalu ringan dan mudah. Semua kewajipan tersebut sangat seimbang, yang menghendaki mereka yang melakukannya juga sangat sederhana.”
Allah s.w.t telah menetapkan syarat bahawa untuk menjamin kemakmuran, keamanan dan kesejahteraan yang mapan, sesebuah negara mestilah seperti yang di sebutkan dalam aurah al-A’raaf, ayat 96 yang bermaksud: “Dan (Tuhan berfirman lagi): Sekiranya penduduk negeri itu, beriman serta bertaqwa, tentulah Kami akan membuka kepada mereka (pintu pengurniaan) yang melimpah-limpah berkatnya, dari langit dan bumi. Tetapi mereka mendustakan (Rasul Kami), lalu Kami timpakan mereka dengan azab seksa disebabkan apa yang mereka telah usahakan.”

Justeru, sifat ikhlas harus menjadi tunjang konsep ini. Firman Allah dalam surah al-Bayyinah, ayat 5, yang bermaksud: “Pada hal mereka tidak diperintahkan melainkan supaya menyembah Allah dengan mengikhlaskan ibadat kepadaNya, lagi tetap teguh di atas tauhid, dan supaya mereka mendirikan sembahyang serta memberi zakat. Dan yang demikian itulah agama yang benar.” Hakikatnya ialah perjuangan untuk menegak kebenaran adalah suatu yang sukar. Tiada jalan mudah untuk ditempuh.

Firman-Nya lagi dalam surah at-Taubah, ayat 42, yang bermaksud: “Kalau apa yang engkau serukan kepada mereka (wahai Muhammad) sesuatu yang berfaedah yang sudah didapati, dan satu perjalanan yang sederhana (tidak begitu jauh), nescaya mereka (yang munafik itu) akan mengikutmu, tetapi tempat yang hendak dituju itu jauh bagi mereka.”
Memang menjadi tabiat semulajadi manusia jika membuat sesuatu pekerjaan, dia mahu melihat natijahnya dengan segera. Firman Allah dalam surah al-Anbiya, ayat 37, yang bermaksud: “Jenis manusia dijadikan bertabiat terburu-buru dalam segala halnya.”
Namun, mengikut fitrah perjuangan, sesuatu natijah tidak dapat dilihat atau diperolehi dalam masa yang singkat. Mereka yang mahu menyertai sesuatu perjuangan perlu menerima hakikat ini agar mereka tidak berasa kecundang sekiranya apa yang diperjuangkan itu tidak membuahkan hasil dalam masa yang singkat. Mereka yang mengharapkan kejayaan dalam masa yang singkat biasanya menjadi mangsa cita-cita dan mudah kecewa. Dasar Ekonomi Baru (DEB) adalah contoh yang jelas. Kita janganlah terlalu kecewa kerana dasar ini masih belum mencapai matlamatnya walaupun tempoh masanya telah tamat. Dua puluh tahun adalah jangka masa yang singkat. Kekuatan dan kelemahan hendaklah dijadikan panduan untuk menggubal Model Ekonomi Baru (MEB) yang sedang hangat diperkatakan hari ini dan Rancangan Malaysia ke-10 (RMK10).
Saya telah dijemput beberapa kali dalam wacana model ini. Apa yang saya lihat di kalangan pakar-pakar ekonomi kita mahu memperlihatkan dan menunjukkan ‘kehebatan’ mereka sehingga memingkirkan dasar afirmatif yang menjadi tunjang kepada DEB sebelum ini. Apabila mereka membuat sesuatu dasar, mereka mahu dilihat nampak hebat dan dapat diterima semua, sehinggakan perkataan atau roh Islam langsung tidak disebut. Kita seolah-olah takut untuk memasukkan unsur-unsur afirmatif yang berpihak kepada Islam dan Melayu seperti yang termaktub dalam perlembagaan kerana takut mengguris perasaan orang lain. Sedangkan adakah orang lain begitu menjaga perasaan kita? Pada kita, memasukkan kedua-dua unsur ini dianggap sesuatu yang sensitif. Justeru, tidak hairanlah kadangkala agama dan identiti sendiri merempat di bumi sendiri.
Misalnya, program Colours of Malaysia, kenapa tidak gunakan perkataan “Warna-warni Malaysia”? Tidakkah ia nampak lebih gah? Hina sangatkah bahasa kebangsaan ini? Adakah kata-kata “Warna-warni Malaysia” tidak bersifat international? Pernahkah kita bertanya kepada Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka? Tidak ada negara lain di dunia ini yang terlalu mendewa-dewakan bahasa lain selain bahasa kebangsaan mereka, tanpa menolak kepentingan bahasa lain? Kementerian Pelancongan perlu memahami semangat 1Malaysia yang sebenar.

Kepentingan bahasa kebangsaan mesti didahulukan, berbanding bahasa lain, barulah menepati wasatiyyah. Pelik juga kadangkala, adakah kita ingin mengajar para pelancong yang rata-rata memahami bahasa Inggeris? Sampai bilakah kita mahu memperkenalkan budaya sendiri? Saya yakin perkara ini tidak akan berlaku di negara lain seperti Thailand dan Indonesia, kerana mereka amat kuat jatidirinya. Dengan sebab itu, kita lihat semua program dan produk luar dialihbahasakan dalam bahasa mereka sendiri.

Konsep ‘wasatiyyah’ tidak boleh terlalu mendewa-dewakan identiti orang lain. Ilmu dan identiti negara bangsa harus menjadi tunjang. Tanpa ilmu dan identiti, apa jua konsep dan gagasan yang dikemukakan sukar untuk diterima. Lebih-lebih lagi jika ianya dipolitikkan.

Kadangkala sedih juga mendengar bila mana kita sanggup menyediakan sejumlah RM3 juta untuk tabung dana pembelaan artis untuk membantu warga seni. Tertanya-tanya saya, adakah hanya artis layak dibantu? Bagaimana dengan tabung kebajikan akademik, sejarawan, budayawan, karyawan, wartawan, dan sebagainya? Apakah mereka tidak menyumbang kepada kerajaan dan negara?

Kenapa bila disebut sahaja artis kita begitu beriya-iya dengan berbagai pertandingan itu dan ini, serta anugerah yang hebat-hebat? Namun, bila sebut sahaja ilmuan dan agamawan, penuh dengan seribu tanda tanya? Bukan tiada, tetapi masih kurang. Saya amat mengharapkan konsep wasatiyyah akan dapat mengimbangi semua perkara ini agar gagasan 1Malaysia dapat direalisasikan.

Semua perkara yang disampaikan ini membawakan saya teringatkan kepada kata-kata George Carlin dalam dunia yang serba moden ini tatkala manusia mengejar kemewahan dunia sehingga tidak dapat merasai apakah nikmat bahagia sebenarnya. Kata-kata beliau ini patut dijadikan renungan dalam memahami konsep ‘wasatiyyah’: The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

Ingatan Carlin ini patut dijadikan panduan. Apa guna tilam yang mahal dan empuk, jika tidak dapat tidur yang nyenyak? Apa guna mahligai besar, jika suasananya sunyi sepi ibarat kubur? Apa guna wang dan harta jika tidak dapat membeli bahagia? Alangkah indahnya hidup ini, jika kita dapat kesemuanya, pada masa sama kita bahagia, ceria dan dapat tidur dengan nyenyak. Semuanya itu adalah anugerah daripada Allah s.w.t.

Kehidupan terbaik adalah kehidupan yang penuh bermakna di dunia ini, menjadi hamba yang taat kepada segala perintah dan menjauhi laranganNya sertai mendapat mardhatillah yakni keredhaan Allah s.w.t. Kehidupan di dunia jangan sampai melalaikan tanggungjawab kita terhadap-Nya kerana semua itu adalah ibadah. Inilah ‘wasatiyyah’ yang kita idam-idamkan seperti yang telah dibincangkan panjang lebar.

STUDY ON MSIA-SPORE HIGH SPEED TO BE READY IN 8 TO 9 MONTHS TIMEHS

2011-11-26T15:10:00.001+08:00

Posted on 25 November 2011 - 02:48pm
Last updated on 25 November 2011 - 02:56pm

SINGAPORE (Nov 25, 2011): International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said the full study on the proposed high speed train linking Malaysia and Singapore is expected to be completed in eight to nine months.
He said a pre-feasibility study had been done and the results were positive, and now they were moving into the next stage.
"By that time we will know which way we are going. But certainly it is a necessity (to have the train). I think it is a question of numbers, cost and benefits," he told a press conference after the Malaysia-Singapore Business Forum here today.
The forum themed, "Enhancing Strategic Partnership" was also attended by Singapore Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang.
Mustapa said the train would be something that the country would need to further promote growth between Singapore and Malaysia and "what more when we are talking about connectivity within Asean, this is going to be an important link in this connectivity."
Meanwhile, Malaysians and Singaporeans have expressed high hopes on the proposed rail link between the two countries.
Earlier reports have said that the benefit of travelling between 110 mph and 220 mph will mean better connectivity, shorter travel time and new development around train stations.
The changes are also expected to create 150,000 new jobs and some US$19 billion in new businesses by 2035.
The rail network is also expected to spur tourism, give businesses a wider pool of workers to choose from and help grow technology clusters in cities.
Based on the experiences in other countries, the high speed train will also generate substantial economic benefit to both countries.
The one-day forum today was organised by the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry and the Malaysia External Trade Development Corp, together with International Enterprise, Singapore and the Singapore Business Federation.
About 700 participants attended the forum at the Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore. – Bernama

PM LAUNCHES BUMIPUTRA TRANSFORMATION ROADMAP

2011-11-26T14:10:00.006+08:00

BY FLORENCE A. SAMY

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has launched a Bumiputra Economic Transformation Roadmap aimed at strengthening Bumiputra participation in the economy.
The strategic roadmap, he said, would incorporate a new dimension and approach to tackle the imbalance in income and wealth creation among Bumiputras.

"The main aim is to ensure that Bumiputra participation in the economy is more balanced when Malaysia achieves Vision 2020 especially in high-growth sectors, high-income employment and ownership of big companies," he said at the launch on Saturday.

Present were Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Cabinet ministers and corporate leaders.
The roadmap, Najib said, would benefit Malaysians on the whole although it directly involves Bumiputras as the latter represented the majority of the population.

The roadmap has three strategic focus, namely reform of policy instruments and rationalisation of delivery system; strengthening education and building capabilities; and acquiring, creating or developing businesses with sufficient scale.

It would be guided by six principles namely market-friendly, needs-based, merit-based, transparency, pro-growth and building sustainable competitiveness.

MALAYSIANS ARE SENSITIVE TO PRICE INCREASES

2011-07-13T13:28:00.000+08:00

We’re sensitive to price increases

By Cheryll Yvonne Achu
news@nst.com.my
2011/07/13

PETALING JAYA: Malaysians are the most price-sensitive shoppers in Southeast Asia, said a survey that also puts them tops in Asia-Pacific when it comes to looking for sales.

As inflation shows no signs of slowing down, Malaysians are becoming more conscious of price increases.
Nielsen Malaysia associate director of retail measurement services Teoh Choon Keat said: “In an inflationary environment, shoppers are exercising more caution when it comes to spending on household items.” The Nielsen Shopper Trends Survey shows that Malaysian shoppers are the second most prolific buyers in Asia-Pacific after those in Vietnam.

“The survey found that 65 per cent of Malaysian shoppers actively search for promotions while shopping ,” Teoh said, adding that sales continued to be the key driver of store traffic.

He was sharing the survey results with the media yesterday.

Earlier, Teoh said mini-markets were becoming more popular in Malaysia.

“The number of mini-markets grew by about 60 per cent from 250 in 2009 to 408 last year, reflecting that the segment was the fastest growing among retail outlets last year.

“Besides store accessibility, mini- markets are competitive in pricing and offer products that are good value for money.”

Universiti Al Azhar Universiti Islam kedua selepas Universiti Al Zaitun

2011-05-21T00:33:00.001+08:00

Universiti pertama Islam ialah Universiti Al Zaitun di di Tunis. Universiti Al Azhar adalah Universiti Islam yang kedua dan terletak di Kahirah

Al-Azhar University

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Al-Azhar" redirects here. For other uses, see Al-Azhar (disambiguation).

Al-Azhar University
جامعة الأزهر Game'at Al-ʾAzhar al-Šarīf
Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo Egypt
Established	970~972 AD
Type	Public
Religious affiliation	Islamic (Sunni)
President	Dr. Abdullah al-Husseini
Location	Cairo, Egypt 30°02′45″N 31°15′45″ECoordinates: 30°02′45″N 31°15′45″E
Campus	Urban
Website	azhar.edu.eg/En/index.htm

Al-Azhar University (pronounced "AZ-har", Arabic: جامعة الأزهر الشريف‎; Game'at Al-ʾAzhar al-Šarīf, "the Noble Azhar University") is an educational institute in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 970~972 as a madrasa, it is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Sunni Islamic learning in the world.^[1] It is the oldest degree-granting university in Egypt after Cairo University. In 1961 non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.^[2]
It is associated with Al-Azhar Mosque in Islamic Cairo. The university's mission includes the propagation of Islamic religion and culture. To this end, its Islamic scholars (ulamas) render edicts (fatwas) on disputes submitted to them from all over the Sunni Islamic world regarding proper conduct for Muslim individuals and societies. Al-Azhar also trains Egyptian government appointed preachers in proselytization (da'wa).
Its library is considered second in importance in Egypt only to the Egyptian National Library and Archives.^{[citation needed]} In May 2005, Al-Azhar in partnership with a Dubai information technology enterprise, ITEP launched the H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Project to Preserve Al Azhar Scripts and Publish Them Online (the "Al-Azhar Online Project") with the mission of eventually providing online access to the library's entire rare manuscripts collection (comprising about seven million pages).^[3]^[4]
Al-Azhar is considered by one author the world's second oldest surviving degree granting university.^[5] However, this claim on precedence appears to confound the distinct nature of madrasas and medieval universities which followed very different historical trajectories until the former were expanded to the latter in modern times,^[6]^[7] and fails to take into account that the Islamic Ijazah certificate deviated in concept and procedure from the medieval doctorate out of which modern university degrees evolved.^[8]^[9]^[10]

[hide]

[edit] History

Al-Azhar University concerns itself with the religious syllabus, which pays special attention to the Quranic sciences and traditions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, on the one hand, while on the other hand the university teaches all the modern fields of science. In 1961, according to Al-Azhar university's legislatory law No. 103, new colleges of applied sciences, such as the faculties of Medicine and Engineering, were introduced to Al-Azhar university. These newly introduced faculties are not duplicates of their counterparts in other universities because they combine the empirical sciences with the religious sciences. Alongside the Egyptian students who are studying at Al-Azhar university, there are also many other students from various Islamic and European countries. These foreign Muslim students have exactly the same rights as the Egyptian students.^{[citation needed]}
The madrasa was founded by the Fatimid dynasty of Egypt, descended from Fatimah, daughter of Muhammad. Fatimah was called Az-Zahra (the brilliant), and the university was named in her honor.^{[citation needed]}
Studies began at Al-Azhar in the month of Ramadan, 975 AD. According to Syed Farid Alatas, the Jami'ah had faculties in Islamic law and jurisprudence, Arabic grammar, Islamic astronomy, Islamic philosophy, and logic.^[11]^[12] In the 12th century, following the overthrow of the Shia Fatimid dynasty, Sultan Saladin (the founder of the staunchly Sunni Ayyubid Dynasty ) converted Al-Azhar to a Shafi'ite Sunni center of learning.^[1]^[13] Abd-el-latif delivered lectures on Islamic medicine at Al-Azhar, while the jewish philosopher Maimonides delivered lectures on medicine and astronomy there during the time of Saladin.^[14]
In 1961, Al-Azhar was established as a university under the government of Egypt's second President Gamal Abdel Nasser when a wide range of secular faculties were added for the first time, such as business, economics,science,pharmacy,medicine, engineering and agriculture. Before that date, the Encyclopaedia of Islam classifies the Al-Azhar variously as madrasa, center of higher learning and, since the 19th century, religious university, but not as a university in the full sense, referring to the modern transition process as "from madrasa to university".^[2]^[15] An Islamic women's faculty was also added in the same year, six years after Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah had been the first woman to speak at the university.^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Magazine publishing

Since 1929, Al-Azhar has published a magazine (now monthly) whose stated mission is to publicise religious rules, subjects related to Islamic literature, and basic jurisprudence (Fiqh), including sections on history, biographies, translated texts, and news concerning the Muslim world.

[edit] Political views

Sheikh Tantawy noted that among the priorities of Muslims are "to master all knowledge of the world and the hereafter, not least the technology of modern weapons to strengthen and defend the community and faith". He added that "mastery over modern weaponry is important to prepare for any eventuality or prejudices of the others, although Islam is a religion of peace.".^[16]
Sheikh Tantawy also reasserted that his is the best faith to follow (a tenet common to proponents of many religions) and that Muslims have the duty of active da'wa. He has made declarations about Muslims interacting with non-Muslims who are not a threat to Muslims. There are non-Muslims living apart from Muslims and who are not enemies of Islam ("Muslims are allowed to undertake exchanges of interests with these non-Muslims so long as these ties do not tarnish the image of the faith"), and there are "the non-Muslims who live in the same country as the Muslims in cooperation and on friendly terms, and are not enemies of the faith" ("in this case, their rights and responsibilities are the same as the Muslims so long as they do not become enemies of Islam"). However, Shi'a fiqh (according to a fatwa by Al-Azhar, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam)^[17] is accepted as a fifth school of Islamic thought.

[edit] On freedom of speech

In October 2007, Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy, then the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, drew allegations of stifling freedom of speech when he asked the Egyptian government to toughen its rules and punishments against journalists. During a Friday sermon in the presence of Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and a number of ministers, Tantawy is alleged to have stated that journalism which contributes to the spread of false rumours rather than true news deserves to be boycotted, and that it is tantamount to sinning for readers to purchase such newspapers. Tantawy, a supporter of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, also called for a punishment of eighty lashes to "those who spread rumors" in an indictment of speculation by journalists over Mubarak's ill health and possible death.^[18]^[19] This is not the first time that he has criticized the Egyptian press regarding its news coverage nor is it the first time he in return has been accused by the press of opposing freedom of speech. During a religious celebration in the same month, Tantawy released comments alluding to "the arrogant and the pretenders who accuse others with the ugliest vice and unsubstantiated charges". In response, Egypt's press union issued a statement suggesting that Tantawy appeared to be involved in inciting and escalating a campaign against journalists and freedom of the press.^[20]

[edit] Notable persons associated with the university

Al-Azhar University has had a huge impact on the religious, cultural and political arena in Egypt, the Arab World, and the wider Muslim world

[edit] 19th – early 20th centuries

Muhammad Abduh, founder of Islamic Modernism
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, founder and leader of Black Hand
Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, Mufti of Jerusalem, a Palestinian Arab nationalist and strong opponent of Zionism
Cheikh Chouaïb Doukkali, Former Moroccan minister of Justice, President of the Moroccan Appellate Court and a pioneer within the Moroccan independence movement
Ahmed Orabi, Egyptian nationalist and army general who led the Urabi Revolt against Khedive Tewfik

[edit] 1910s–1950s

Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (he graduated from Darul 'Uloom which is an affiliate of Cairo University)
Omar Abdel Rahman, leader of Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, which has been designated a terrorist group by the governments of the United States and Egypt; currently serving a life term for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing
Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, the leader and founder of The Islamic Political Party, Hizb ut-Tahrir (The Party of Liberation)
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and leader of Hamas
Saad Zaghlul, leader of 1919 revolution in Egypt
Taha Hussein, Influential Egyptian writer and intellectual
Muhammad Ma Jian, translator of the Qur'an into the Chinese language
Ahmad Meshari Al-Adwani, Kuwaiti poet and writer of Kuwait's national anthem Al-Nasheed Al-Watani

[edit] 1950–present

This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability or notability policies. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources cited within this article showing they are notable and an alumnus/resident or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations. (March 2011)

Mohammed Burhanuddin, Dai of Dawoodi Bohra done rediscovery of Al-Azhar University's past History and was Awarded Ph.d from Al-Azhar University.^[21]
Shire Jama Ahmed, Somali linguist who devised a Latin script for the Somali language.^[22]
Mahmud Shaltut,^{[citation needed]} Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar, issued in 1959 a Fatwa, declaring that Al-Azhar recognizes Shi'ism as a valid branch of Islam
Abdel-Halim Mahmoud,^{[citation needed]} Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar, introduced the study of Sufism as a science through his prolific writings and lectures on the matter
Taha Jabir Alalwani, President of Cordoba University (Ashburn, VA, USA), former Chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America, and the President of the International Institute of Islamic Thought in Herndon, Virginia (USA).^[23]
Gus Dur,^{[citation needed]} Former President of Indonesia
Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy,^{[citation needed]} former Grand Imam of Al-Azhar (March 17, 1996 to March 10, 2010)
Muhammad Metwally Al Shaarawy^{[citation needed]} is an Egyptian Muslim jurist and made many publications under his name
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Former President of The Republic of Maldives
Abdulla Saeed, Former Chief Justice, and Justice Supreme Court of The Republic of Maldives ).^[24]
Dr. Ahmed Abdulla Didi, Justice Supreme Court of The Republic of Maldives.^[24]

[edit] Faculties

[edit] See also

	Egypt portal
	Islam portal
	University portal

Outside Egypt

Universiti Harvard dinamakan ikut nama John Harvard yang pertama membantu Universiti tersebut semasa ia mula2 ditubuhkan sebagai sebuah Kolej

2011-05-20T23:44:00.000+08:00

Nama Universiti Harvard adalah sempena nama John Harvard yang pertama sekali membantu Universiti tersebut semasa ia mula2 ditubuhkan sebagai sebuah Kolej

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Harvard
John Harvard Statue at Harvard University.
Born	November 26, 1607 Southwark, England
Died	September 14, 1638 (aged 30) Charlestown, Massachusetts
Occupation	pastor

John Harvard (November 26, 1607 – September 14, 1638) was an English pastor and first benefactor of the college that was named Harvard College in his honor.^[1] He directed that half his money, along with his library, be given to the recently created school. His gift assured its continued operation.^[2] The Harvard Bridge is named after him, as is the John Harvard Library in Southwark, London.

[hide]

[edit] Biography

Harvard was born and raised in Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite the City of London. He was the fourth of nine children, the son of Robert Harvard (1562–1625), a butcher and tavern owner, and his wife, Katherine Rogers (1584–1635), a native of Stratford-upon-Avon whose father, Thomas Rogers (1540–1611), is sometimes thought to have been an associate of John Shakespeare, the father of William Shakespeare (1564–1616). He was baptised at the parish church (now Southwark Cathedral) in 1607.^[3] John Harvard was educated at St Saviour's Grammar School in Southwark, where his father Robert was a governor.
In 1625, his father, a stepsister, and two brothers died of the plague. Of his immediate family, only his mother and one brother, Thomas, remained. She remarried to John Elletson (1580–1626) who died within months of their marriage, and then to Richard Yearwood (1580–1632) in 1627. Harvard entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, then a Puritan stronghold, in December 1627 and received his B.A. in 1632.^[4] Katherine died in 1635 and Thomas in the spring of 1637. John married Ann Sadler (1614–55), of Ringmer, Sussex, in April, 1636, daughter of the Rev. John Sadler and sister of Harvard's contemporary, John Sadler, the lawyer and orientalist.
In May 1637 he emigrated with his wife to New England and settled in Charlestown, where many of his classmates had arrived before him. Charlestown made him the minister of the Church, but within the following year he contracted tuberculosis and died on September 14, 1638. He is buried at the Phipps Street Burying Ground in Charlestown.
Childless, Harvard bequeathed £779 17s 2d^[3] (half of his estate) and his library of around 400 volumes to the New College at nearby Cambridge, which had been founded on September 8, 1636, and to his friend, the first schoolmaster of this college, Nathaniel Eaton. Eaton's Records indicate that the building of the new college began immediately in 1638 with the assistance of the carpenter Thomas Meakins and/or his son, Thomas Meakins, Jr. of Charlestown. It was completely constructed of wood, with a stone foundation and cellar, had its own apple orchard, and was apparently equipped with live-in accommodations for some 30 students, as there were at least that many attendant within the first year.
The school renamed itself "Harvard College" on March 13, 1639. Harvard was first referred to as a university rather than a college by the new Massachusetts Constitution of 1780.
No records or illustrations remain of the earliest college, which burnt to the ground in 1764 along with all but one of Harvard's original 400 volume donation.^[5]^[6]

[edit] Statue

A statue of John Harvard, sculpted by Daniel Chester French, sits in Harvard Yard at Harvard University. Despite its name, the statue does not depict the true likeness of John Harvard, as the sculptor had no accurate image to work from.^[7] The statue, known by Harvard tour guides as the statue of three lies, claims that it depicts John Harvard, Founder, 1638, but in reality Harvard was a contributor, not the founder; the institution was founded in 1636; and the statue is actually a likeness of someone else.^[7] French used a student as a model.^[8]^[9]
The statue is located centrally in Harvard Yard, next to University Hall. The Harvard University Band plays in front of the statue after home game victories. Tour guides often tell visitors it is good luck to rub John Harvard's left foot. There is, however, among Harvard undergraduate students a longstanding tradition of urinating on the statue at night.^[10]
The statue is depicted on a 1986 United States Postal Service 56 cent postage stamp, as part of the Great Americans series. It also appears in 2010 film The Social Network.^[11]

[edit] References

^ "John Harvard Facts, Information.". The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Retrieved 2009-07-17. "English minister in America and first major benefactor of Harvard College. He bequeathed £780 (half his estate) and his library of 320 volumes to the new established college at Cambridge, Mass., which was named in his honor."
^ "John Harvard (British minister)". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2009-07-17. "he directed that half his money, along with his collection of classical and theological literature, be given to a [certain] school recently created...Harvard's gift assured its continued operation"
^ ^a ^b Rowston, Guy (2006). Southwark Cathedral — The authorised Guide.
^ Harvard, John in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
^ "Tale of John Harvard's surviving book". Harvard University. Retrieved 2009-03-23.^{[dead link]}
^ Marbled Paper. University of Pennsylvania Press. 1990. ISBN 0812281888.
^ ^a ^b Landmarks at Harvard Access date March 2, 2008
^ John Harvard Statue Access date March 2, 2008
^ Harvard's Statue of 3 Lies Access date March 2, 2008
^ http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2006/12/18/the-truth-about-john-harvard-p/
^ Scott catalog # 2191.

1Melayu, 1Bumi

2011-05-10T04:39:00.000+08:00

Ayuh! Gerakkan segera 1Melayu, 1Bumi

Oleh Zaini Hassan

ORANG Cina telah bersatu. Keputusan Pilihan Raya Negeri Sarawak telah membuktikannya. Malah, sebenarnya orang Cina telah pun bersatu sejak dulu lagi.
Perkembangan politik muaasir (kontemporari), selepas era-Mahathirisme dan semasa era-Abdullahisme telah membuktikan ikatan orang Cina lebih utuh dan berpadu. Hubungan kekitaan, kekeluargaan serta brotherhood dan ukhwah orang Cina lebih erat, tanpa boleh ditandingi oleh mana-mana kaum di atas muka bumi Malaysia ini.

Walaupun antara mereka berlainan haluan politik, tapi apabila sampai masa menentukan arah untung nasib kaum Cina – mereka akan bersatu atas pangkahan undi yang sama.

Dalam ekonomi, mereka membantu antara satu sama lain. Dari sekecil-kecil ekonomis kepadalah yang sebesar-besarnya, mereka akan tolong-menolong antara satu sama lain.

Budaya telah berjaya menyatupadukan orang Cina. Dalam masyarakat Cina tiada istilah bidaah yang boleh memesongkan mereka daripada soal budaya dan adat resam bangsa. Bahasa Cina diangkat tinggi, malah ada yang kata orang Cina yang tidak boleh membaca Cina pun akan turut membantu membeli akhbar Cina. Maka itu, akhbar Sin Chew Jit Poh – suara keramat orang Cina, menjadi antara akhbar yang paling tinggi edaran dan keuntungannya di Malaysia.

Sekolah Cina terus dijadikan sebagai cagaran politik utama – yang tidak boleh dikompromi sama sekali.
Pendek kata, orang Cina sebenarnya amat beruntung sekali berada di bumi Malaysia ini. Mereka telah menguasai segala-galanya. Sepuluh teratas orang mereka adalah bilionaire Malaysia. Sebahagian besar kedai yang ada di atas muka bumi Malaysia ini milik mereka. Hampir semua pelajar yang belajar di universiti swasta dan IPTS ternama dan mahal-mahal di negara ini rata-ratanya orang mereka.

Saya telah nyatakan perkara itu dalam Cuit bertajuk Apa lagi orang Cina mahu? tahun lepas. Tulisan itu dipetik sepenuhnya oleh akhbar Straits Times Singapura dan surat pembaca yang saya terima dari republik itu menyokong penuh tulisan itu.

Apa yang saya katakan ini adalah hakikat atau fakta.
Hanya kuasa mutlak politik yang belum dikuasai sepenuh oleh orang Cina, yang lain semua sudah. Kini DAP membawa slogan yang cukup hebat di kalangan masyarakat mereka iaitu Undi untuk Ubah, Enough is Enough (Cukuplah) dan Selamatkan Malaysia.

Slogan itu sebenarnya bukan ditujukan kepada orang lain, tapi khususnya kepada orang Cina. Terpapar megah di dada baju penyokong dan calon DAP dalam pilihan raya Sarawak supaya diubah kepimpinan Melayu Malaysia ini.

Terus terang saya katakan, saya amat menyanjungi orang Cina. Mereka mempunyai matlamat dan masa depan yang cukup jelas. Walaupun tindakan itu berbau politik atau bukan, soalnya mereka cukup bersatu. Politik digunakan sebaik-baik mungkin untuk menyatupadukan kaum itu.

Kita jangan salahkan DAP. Apa yang DAP lakukan itu amat betul untuk masa depan kaumnya. Jika Pas dipergunakan oleh DAP untuk memecahkan bangsanya sendiri, itulah operatif licik DAP.

DAP telah berjaya menjadi parti Cina yang telah menyatupadukan orang Cina. MCA gagal dan SUPP pun gagal. Itu hakikat atas kertas. Malah seorang sahabat saya berbangsa Cina, pengarang sebuah akhbar ternama bersetuju bahawa orang Cina kini ke arah menyokong pembangkang. Pilihan Raya Umum Ke-13 akan digunakan sepenuhnya untuk menyatukan kuasa mereka.

Sebaliknya apa yang orang Melayu buat? Tiada apa-apa. Mereka ialah satu bangsa yang cukup selesa, komplesen, alpa dan tidak peduli. Malah pemikiran mereka cukup bercelaru.

Apa yang harus UMNO lakukan? UMNO harus berfikiran seperti DAPkah?

Pandangan saya, apa yang UMNO harus lakukan sekarang, di masa yang amat terdesak sekarang, ialah melancarkan gelombang perpaduan bangsa – 1Melayu, 1Bumi.

Lancarkan segera 1Melayu, 1Bumi dalam lingkungan UMNO dan parti-parti Melayu yang lain.
Jika Pas degil dan tidak mahu ikut serta, gabungkan dengan puluhan NGO-NGO Melayu yang kini tumbuh bagaikan cendawan di atas bumi Malaysia ini. Perlu diingat NGO-NGO itu wujud kerana mereka dahagakan wadah perjuangan untung nasib bangsa semakin ditinggalkan. UMNO harus tarik pertubuhan sukarela ini ke hadapan dan menjadi juara semula dalam soal ini.

Persetankan Pas yang ternyata telah menggadaikan perjuangan bangsa Melayu untuk kepentingan politik totok mereka. Hairan sungguh, para penyokong Pas akan menjadi lebih kuah daripada sudu semasa berkempen, dan mereka tidak pernah sedar bahawa secara senyap-senyap DAP cukup strategik mempermainkan mereka.

Saya kira, sekiranya lima kerusi Pas di Sarawak itu ditandingkan di kawasan Cina sudah pasti mereka akan menang dan ada wakil dalam dewan undangan negeri. Tapi DAP telah mempermainkan mereka. Pas diletakkan di kawasan kaum bumiputera, bagi membolehkan kaum bumiputera terus berpecah. Pas seperti biasa, tidak sedar semua itu.

Dalam usaha meniupkan gelombang 1Melayu, 1Bumi, tidak salah 1Malaysia diteruskan kerana ia adalah dasar jangka panjang negara. Parti komponen Cina dalam BN pun tidak akan marah jika UMNO melancarkan gagasan 1Melayu, 1Bumi kerana bagi mereka orang Cina telah pun bersatu.

Tidak salah bagi orang Melayu melancarkan seruan 1Melayu, 1Bumi kerana orang Melayu sendiri belum bersatu.

Dalam tulisan-tulisan saya sebelum ini, saya ada mengatakan orang Melayu berpecah kepada enam golongan. Melayu UMNO, Melayu Pas, Melayu PKR, Melayu DAP, Melayu Liberal dan Melayu Atas Pagar.
Orang Melayu cukup berpecah. Orang Cina tidak akan marah sekiranya orang Melayu bersatu kembali. Mungkin DAPlah yang tidak selesa kerana matlamat mereka untuk memecah-belahkan lagi orang Melayu akan gagal.

Bagi DAP, selagi konsep Malaysia Malaysian mereka tidak berlaku, selagi itu mereka akan berusaha keras untuk menjayakannya.

UMNO harus meniupkan gagasan 1Melayu, 1Bumi ini segera. Orang Melayu harus disatukan segera bagi memastikan mereka menguasai semula politik yang semakin terhakis daripada tangan mereka.
Walaupun Melayu berpecah, namun ada lagi suara-suara segelintir yang amat sayangkan bangsa. Seorang sahabat umpamanya, menghantar SMS semasa tulisan ini ditulis berbunyi: “Tolong tulis...BN jangan lagi bagi kawasan majoriti Melayu kepada wakil MCA, Gerakan dalam PRU akan datang... cukup sudah pengorbanan UMNO yang dibalas dengan tuba. MCA dan Gerakan WAJIB akur kerana kalau mereka kalah dengan DAP, wakil mereka tak perlu dilantik dalam kerajaan...”

Itu ialah suara marah. Orang Melayu marah. Tapi kita harus rasional. Susun semula barisan dan gelombang satukan orang Melayu.

Saya bercakap bagi pihak bangsa saya. Gagasan inilah yang turut dimainkan oleh sahabat saya, saudara Ridhuan Tee Abdullah, seorang mualaf Cina yang cukup kental jiwa ultra-Melayunya. Orang Cina amat tidak menggemari beliau di atas semangat assabiyah Melayu beliau itu.

Namun bagi Ridhuan, dan orang Melayu yang lain, mereka amat khuatir dengan perkembangan mutakhir yang berlaku di negara ini sekarang.

Namun, penghargaan harus diberi kepada kaum bumiputera Sarawak yang telah melaksanakan tanggungjawab mereka dengan begitu betul sekali.

Saya angkat topi kepada kaum bumiputera Sarawak yang dilihat lebih matang daripada orang Melayu di Semenanjung. Sekiranya mereka tidak bersatu dalam pilihan raya 16 April lalu, maka Sarawak sudah tentu akan jatuh ke tangan orang lain.

Orang bumiputera Sarawak telah memberi satu petunjuk yang amat berharga supaya diikuti oleh kaum Melayu di Semenanjung.

Namun, orang Melayu Semenanjung berpecah enam. Mereka masih lagi berpecah enam.
Oleh itu menjadi kewajipan UMNO; atas nama pejuang-pejuangnya yang terdahulu; dan sebagai parti induk orang Melayu; lancarkan segera slogan 1Melayu, 1Bumi bagi menggerakkan semula gelombang kebangsaan bangsa itu.

Melayu harus dan wajib disatukan kembali sebagaimana kita mahu satukan orang Malaysia di bawah semangat 1Malaysia. Tiada makna adanya 1Malaysia, jika orang Melayu sendiri pun berpecah.
Kini terletak dalam tangan UMNO untuk menentukan hidup atau mati bangsa ini.

Orang Cina sudah ada 1Cina dalam erti kata tersendiri. Orang Melayu pun perlu ada 1Melayu, 1Bumi. Ayuh gerakkan!

Al Qaeda plotted 9/11 anniversary rail attack - U.S.

2011-05-07T02:40:00.000+08:00

Al Qaeda plotted 9/11 anniversary rail attack - U.S.

By James Vicini and Mark Hosenball | Reuters – Fri, May 6, 2011

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda considered attacking the U.S. rail sector on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. government officials said on Thursday in describing intelligence from Osama bin Laden's hide-out in Pakistan.

They said some evidence was found indicating the al Qaeda leader or his associates had engaged in discussions or planning for a possible attack on a train inside the United States on Sept. 11, 2011.

"We have no information of any imminent terrorist threat to the U.S. rail sector, but wanted to make our partners aware of the alleged plotting," spokesman Matthew Chandler said of an intelligence message the Department of Homeland Security sent on Thursday.

The department and other U.S. agencies have been reviewing the treasure trove of information from bin Laden's compound in Pakistan seized by the United States during the raid this week that killed the al Qaeda leader.

An initial review of the information by U.S. intelligence analysts indicates that bin Laden, while in Abbottabad, played a direct role for years in plotting terror attacks, and was not just an inspirational figure to al Qaeda, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

"He wasn't just a figurehead," the Times quoted a U.S. official as saying. "He continued to plot and plan, to come up with ideas about targets, and to communicate those ideas to other senior Qaeda leaders."
The information on plotting against the U.S. rail sector indicated one possible tactic for attacking a train was trying to tip it somehow off its tracks, one official said.

The official said it appeared from the information that this was an idea that bin Laden or his associates considered, but there was no indication now from the intelligence that further plans were drawn up for the scheme or that steps were taken to carry it out.

Another official said al Qaeda in February last year contemplated the rail attack to occur on the 10th anniversary of the hijacked plane attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, but the group was not tied to that exact date.

Since the raid, the Department of Homeland Security has taken a number of steps in reviewing measures at all potential terrorist targets, including transportation systems across the country. It added more officers at airports and at the borders.

Chandler said the alleged al Qaeda plot was based on "initial reporting, which is often misleading or inaccurate and subject to change."

He added, "We remain at a heightened state of vigilance," but said there were no plans to raise the national threat level.

Officials have long been concerned that al Qaeda might try to carry out attacks on the U.S. rail system.
In 2008, U.S. authorities warned of a possible al Qaeda threat to transit systems in and around New York City over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Last year, an Afghan immigrant pleaded guilty in New York to plotting a suicide bombing campaign on Manhattan's subway system in what U.S. authorities described as one of the most serious threats since the Sept. 11 attacks.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Vicki Allen)

Medical Course Freeze, No new progammes for 5 years to ensure quality Training

2011-05-06T12:54:00.000+08:00

Medical Course Freeze, No new programmes for 5 years to ensure quality Training

“Based on the current crop of medical graduates from existing institutions of higher learning, the country can reach its target of one medical officer to 400 people (1:400) by 2020."
KUALA LUMPUR: A freeze of five years on new medical courses has been imposed on institutions of higher learning in the country.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the freeze, effective May 1, will end on April 30, 2016.

He said, in a statement yesterday, the cabinet decided on the moratorium based on several factors, including the marked increase in the number of medical graduates, the competency of housemen, teaching staff and teaching hospitals.
“Based on the current crop of medical graduates from existing institutions of higher learning, the country can reach its target of one medical officer to 400 people (1:400) by 2020.

“This can be achieved in stages without having to add new medical courses,” Khalid said. At the moment, Malaysia’s doctor-to-patient ratio is 1:1,000.

Khaled said it was more important to establish a form of control to ensure that graduates could undergo quality medical training to become competent doctors.
“Apart from that, a moratorium on new intake was also suggested to institutions that have not met accreditation standards and criteria. The current accreditation, he said, could be withdrawn until improvements had been carried out.

The freeze, however, would not affect the number of medical officers needed in the country, he said.

“The number of graduates from the 33 existing institutions as well as foreign graduates who return to Malaysia will be enough to meet the country’s needs by the year 2020,” Khaled said.
As of Jan 31, there were 11 public and 22 private institutions of higher learning that offered medical degrees with a total of 47 cour ses.

Only 17 of these institutions had been given accreditation, including eight public institut i o n s.

In early March, Khaled had said the ministry was considering a moratorium on the offer of medical programmes at public and private institutions of higher learning due to a shortage of academic manpower and teaching hospitals.

He has also said the ministry would not approve medical programmes or the setting up of medical faculties at public institutions of higher learning without the approval of the Malaysian Medical Council.

Up to Feb 28, the ministry had approved the registration of 25 universities, 22 university colleges and five branch campuses of foreign universities.

Former Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican concurred that there were enough medical schools and it would not make sense to build more.
He said the focus now should be given on training housemen.

“I would be happier if they (housemen) can be trained in a more structured manner.”

17 accredited medical training and teaching institutions

1. Universiti Malaya
2. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
3. Universiti Sains Malaysia
4. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
5. Universiti Putra Malaysia
6. Penang Medical College
7. Universiti Perubatan Antarabangsa
8. Universiti Islam Antarabangsa
9. Mangalore University/ Manipal Academy of Higher Education
10. Royal College of Medicine Perak (MBBS-Malaya Programme)
11. Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology
12. Universiti Teknologi Mara
13. Universiti Malaysia Sabah
14. Alliance College of Medical Sciences
15. Monash University Sunway Campus
16. UCSI University
17. Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences

'Ya Allah, Kau makbullah (kali ini) solat hajat untuk Anwar

2011-04-20T04:23:00.000+08:00

‘Ya Allah, kau makbullah (kali ini) solat hajat untuk Anwar’

Oleh Zaini Hassan

SOLAT hajat membawa erti yang cukup besar, terutama bagi orang Melayu dan Islam di negara ini. Ada yang melakukan satu stadium untuk memohon kepada Allah SWT bagi kemenangan dalam pilihan raya.
Walaupun kita tahu dalam pilihan raya, matlamat menghalalkan cara sering kali berlaku dan bukan 100 peratus ia bersih daripada piawaian keislaman, solat hajat akan tetap dilakukan.

Budaya solat hajat beramai-ramai ini, kalau tidak salah saya, bermula di Kelantan. Di bawah pemerintahan Pas ia sering kali dilakukan secara massa dan bersaiz mega.

Bersesuaian Kelantan di bawah kepimpinan ulama Pas, solat itu biasanya dilakukan untuk memberikan petunjuk terhadap orang itu, orang ini, kejadian itu dan ini serta untuk menjahanamkan sesuatu kumpulan lain.
Amerika Syarikat dan Israel sering kali dimohon Allah supaya diberi petunjuk keras – setiap kali mereka menyerang negara-negara Islam. Selain daripada itu, UMNO dan kerajaan Barisan Nasional (BN) yang dikatakan zalim oleh Pas dan pembangkang, sering kali dimohon petunjuk yang sama.

Malah, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad pun sering didoakan di mulut-mulut pengikut Pas, ketika itu, sebagai maha firaun, maha zalim dan ada yang berdoakan perkara yang buruk terhadapnya. Malah solat hajat juga diadakan terhadap Mahathir, juga untuk memohon petunjuk kepadanya.
Berita lanjut, sila rujuk edisi cetakan Utusan Malaysia atau langgani e-Paper di http://ebrowse.bluehyppo.com/utusan/index.asp

Registration of New Voters to be focus of UMNO Divisional Meetings

2011-04-19T03:41:00.000+08:00

April 18, 2011 23:46 PM

Registration Of New Voters To Be Focus Of Umno Divisional Meetings

KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 (Bernama) -- The registration of new voters, especially among Umno members and other young people, is expected to be the focus when 191 Umno divisions hold their respective annual meetings between this May 1 and June 15.

Party secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tenku Mansor said more than 20,000 Umno branches already held their annual meeting until April 17.

He hoped the divisions would scrutinise their membership list to ensure that those aged 21 and above and eligible to vote, would immediately register as voters.

"The Umno membership is open to those aged 18 and above, so we hope the divisions and branches will get them to register as voters," he told Bernama, here.

He also wants the party which has 3.35 million members to hold more programmes at the divisional level, so as to get close to the people and to explain the 1Malaysia concept.

Tengku Adnan said all Umno members must also understand the new process of choosing the party's leadership to ensure a smooth party election expected in 2012.

He said the party would be using the best method in explaining to members, the party's new election process following amendments to the party constitution in 2009.

On the proposal to organise election trial runs at the branch and divisional levels this year, Tengku Adnan said so far, the matter had not been decided.

However, he was confident that the troubles that erupted during the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) elections last year would not happen in Umno.

"The difference between us and PKR or any other opposition party is that, we are a very structured party. The foundation is already there and we just follow," he said.

The Umno general assembly in October 2009 passed seven amendments to the party constitution, including increasing the number of delegates to choose the party's top leadership to 146,500 from 2,500.

The amendments also abolished the membership quota system, allowing the wings' leaders to accept new members to as to speed up the membership recruitment process, and also gave automatic delegate status to the divisional secretaries to attend the party's annual general assemblies.

However, last December Prime Minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that the branch, divisional and party Supreme Council elections scheduled for this year be postponed by 18 months.

This is for Umno to focus on efforts to restore and strengthen the party based on the New Political Model, to ensure Umno remains relevant and the main pillar of the ruling government.

-- BERNAMA

Malay/Melanaus is 100% with PBB

2011-04-18T21:30:00.000+08:00

FACED with the risk of choosing wrongly, the Malay/Melanaus opted to vote in all the 35 candidates fielded by Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), which made up largely of members of the community and a number of Dayaks.

The game plan was simple -- the Malay/Melanau community was not willing to gamble away its dominant role in the state government under Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is one of them.

And why should it?

PBB has always played a dominant role in the state Barisan Nasional. The only time the party recorded a poor showing was in 1987, when it won 14 seats and lost nine.

That too, because the issue then was different -- some prominent Malay/Melanau community leaders had left PBB and formed a splinter group called Permas, thus splitting the votes.

But in 1991, PBB lost only four seats, one in 1996 and went on to record 100 per cent success in 2001 and 2006.

Universiti Sains Malaysia's School of Social Sciences deputy dean Dr Sivamurugan Pandian said the sentiment was understandable.

"The community has benefited much under Taib. It did not have any major issues with him, unlike the Chinese.

"PBB is 100 per cent solidly behind him and there is minimal voice of discontent or queries on when he will give way to a successor."

The community was willing to bury its dissatisfaction by looking at the bigger picture, and for the sake of the future generation.

"Yes, I am not saying BN is perfect but it is the best choice when we compare it with others. We can still depend on BN. One must think about the future and the younger generation. Do not follow your heart as the government is doing a good job," said kuih seller Makcik Dayang Jaenah Awang Maadon from Muara Tuang, near here.

As Sivamurugan said, the Malay/ Melanau community has indeed gained much from BN. An example of this is the Malay heartland of Satok, which consists of traditional Malay kampung, situated in the heart of the city.

The number of surau in the area, which are within a short distance of one another and similar to a mosque in size and architecture, is testimony to BN's deeds for the community.

The community is also familiar with its leaders from PBB, who have proven track records, unlike those from Parti Keadilan Rakyat.

Take the case of influential and well-loved eight-term Satok assemblyman Datuk Amar Abang Johari Abang Openg and his challenger -- political greenhorn Ahmad Nazib Johari.

From day one, it was clear that Nazib, despite his confidence which some perceived as being too much, was no match for Abang Johari.

Nazib, although born and bred in the same neighbourhood of Satok as Abang Johari, is not known among the people here. He makes his living in the peninsula, hence the view among the kampung folk that he failed to relate to their issues.

Sivamurugan said the Malay/ Melanau community could not identify with PKR leaders.

"The Malay/Melanau leaders from PKR are alien to the community. Also, PKR does not have any single leader from the community whom the party can be proud of."

This is very true. While PKR projected its state head, Baru Bian, as the designated chief minister, it did not have any names among the party's top leaders who could be the sole voice of the Malay/Melanau community.

"PKR is history as far as Sarawak is concerned. The Malay/Melanau community wants a local voice and not one from the peninsula, as PKR is looked at. The party can never make inroads into these constituencies and its only hope is the Dayak and Chinese areas," added Sivamurugan.

PBB also did very well in the neighbouring Tupong and Samariang constituencies, earlier perceived as grey areas for BN owing to some dissatisfaction with the assemblymen, who were retained in Saturday's state election.

Indeed, PBB improved its majority in most of the Malay/Melanau constituencies. Examples include Pantai Damai, where its vote majority increased from 2,164 in 2006 to 5,071; Samariang from 2,488 to 5,431; Sadong Jaya from 858 to 2,934; Lingga from 1,870 to 2,506; and Jemoreng from 1,710 to 2,926.

The Malay/Melanau community has spoken -- it wants continued stability and is not willing to take a gamble. And as long as PBB listens to the voice of the grassroots, it can be sure of being seen as a formidable party.

'Protect MACC officers handling high-risk cases'

2011-04-12T20:03:00.000+08:00

'Protect MACC officers handling high-risk cases'

2011/04/11
By Masami Mustaza
masamimustaza@nst.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: The investigation of high-profile cases by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers may place them at grave risk, requiring the need for the provision of maximum protection.
Yayasan 1Malaysia Board of Trustees chairman Dr Chandra Muzaffar said this was not something unusual as the MACC dealt with high-profile graft and money-laundering cases.

"They may face trouble from cartels or syndicates that work hand-in-glove with some corrupt government agencies.

"Like the crackdown on the Customs Department, a massive operation such as this may come with a possibility of risk.

"There is surely a lot of powerful vested interests that would want the MACC to slow down, in light of the recent death of a senior Customs officer. As long as the MACC continues to exert pressure, you don't know how they would react."

On April 6, Selangor Customs Department assistant director Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamed, 56, was found dead on the first floor of the MACC building in Jalan Cochrane here.

Chandra said protection of the MACC investigation officers could be in the form of a special police unit or plainclothes policemen assigned to provide security for the officers.

He also urged all parties to cease calling for MACC Chief Commissioner Datuk Seri Abu Kassim Mohammed to resign, saying it was an "ill-conceived move inimical to public interests".

Instead, he said, the opposition should join forces with the government to table a resolution in Parliament to endorse the work of the MACC and to enhance its resources.

A bad attack of the jitters among Chinese leaders, and dissidents pay the price

2011-04-12T01:39:00.000+08:00

Banyan

On the defensive

A bad attack of the jitters among Chinese leaders, and dissidents pay the price

Apr 7th 2011 | from the print edition

THE rest of the world may gasp in awe at China’s surging economy and cower somewhat in face of its growing might, but its own leaders seem far from complacent. Indeed, to judge from its latest defence white paper, and from a continuing crackdown on its critics at home, China’s government feels besieged.

The white paper, produced every two years since 1998, with the latest dated 2010, did not appear until March 31st this year. Maybe it was late because the world has been changing too fast, in too many unsettling ways. The paper suggests a world resentful of China’s emergence as a global power, and trying to thwart it: “Suspicion about China, interference and countering moves against China from the outside are on the increase.”

The white paper claims “the armed forces resolutely subdue all subversive and sabotage activities by hostile forces.” In fact, that task is being pre-empted by other organs of the Chinese state. They have been conducting the biggest round-up of dissidents, human-rights activists, lawyers and bloggers seen for years.
According to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an NGO, by April 4th some 30 people had been detained and faced criminal charges relating to the so-called “jasmine revolution”—an inchoate internet campaign to emulate in China recent upheavals in the Middle East and north Africa. Human Rights Watch, another NGO, reports that a further 100-200 people have suffered repressive measures, from police summonses to house arrest. This has been accompanied by tighter censorship of the internet, the ousting of some liberal newspaper editors, and new curbs on foreign reporters in China, some of whom have been roughed up.

Then this week the dragnet pulled in Ai Weiwei, the best-known dissident in China not to be behind bars. A famous artist, with an installation now on display at a gallery in London and a lasting legacy in the “bird’s nest” stadium in Beijing built for the 2008 Olympics, Mr Ai is also, as the son of a revolutionary poet, the Communist equivalent of minor royalty. On April 3rd he was detained at Beijing airport as he tried to board a flight to Hong Kong. His companion was told that Mr Ai had “other business”.

He has been in trouble before. Last year he was prevented from travelling abroad to attend the ceremony in Oslo where Liu Xiaobo, a jailed Chinese dissident, was awarded the Nobel peace prize. This January his studio in Shanghai was demolished, in what he saw as an act of retribution for his political activism.

Now the police seem determined to find evidence of some “crime”. Soon after his detention, a dozen officers arrived at his studio. They detained people they found there for questioning, and confiscated computers. Mr Ai’s associates fear that his latest troubles are more serious than previous tangles with the authorities, and that the instructions to take action against him have come “from the top”. After the detention, the official press was at first silent about him, until Global Times, a party newspaper, described him as “close to the red line of Chinese law”. Then, in a terse midnight report, the official news agency revealed that he was being investigated for “economic crimes”. It smacked of “Alice In Wonderland”—detention first, suspected crime later.

In the end, Mr Ai’s celebrity seems to have afforded him no protection, and may even have rendered his liberty more precarious. The party seems intent on showing that it will allow no leeway to those dreaming of a people-power movement or democracy. The higher-profile the victim, the more forcibly that message is conveyed. Mr Ai seems likely to become the latest victim of the use of the law to impose political orthodoxy. On March 25th Liu Xianbin, an activist, was sentenced to ten years in prison for “slandering the Communist Party”.

Even more worrying, however, is the increasing resort to informal detentions, punishments and disappearances. These are outside the law, offering the victim no protection at all. The government now dismisses the idea that one function of the law is to defend people against the arbitrary exercise of state power. On March 3rd a Chinese foreign-ministry spokeswoman told foreign journalists: “Don’t use the law as a shield.” Some people, she said, want to make trouble in China and “for people with these kinds of motives, I think no law can protect them.”

It is tempting to dismiss the current crackdown as just the latest twist in the unending cycle of repression and liberalisation through which China has been spinning for over three decades. Popular uprisings abroad, like sensitive political anniversaries or big events such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics at home, offer pretexts for a round-up of the usual suspects. They provide a stiff but effective reminder that in China’s political system—“a people’s democratic dictatorship”—it is the dictatorship bit that counts.

This bout of repression, however, may reflect more than the usual cycle. For a start, it is a huge overreaction. For all the online chatter, no one thinks China is on the brink of a jasmine revolution. Also, with a leadership transition coming next year, and China’s new rulers mostly already identified, it helps quash any notion that they might usher in an era of liberalisation.

Never taking off

Although the short-term risk of a copycat revolution in China is small, events elsewhere have demonstrated the long-term corrosive effect on repressive regimes of the internet, mobile telephones and social networks. Better, the party seems to have concluded, to crack down long and hard now than to wait and see. In George Orwell’s novel “1984”, an intellectual party hack paints a vision of the future as “a boot stamping on a human face—for ever”. China has updated that. Its vision seems to be of a computer screen with a message that the website you seek is unavailable; or perhaps of a mysterious encounter at immigration, and the interpolation of “other business” between check-in and flight.

Tubuhkan Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja Untuk Allahyarham Ahmad Sarbini Mohamad

2011-04-07T12:56:00.000+08:00

Assalamualaikum

Kesiannya kes kematian pegawai kastam ini. Untuk mengelakkan SPRM di tuduh bukan2 saya cadangkan satu Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja ditubuhkan untuk menyiasat apa sebenarnya yang telah berlaku. Ini untuk mengekalkan keyakinan rakyat kepada SPRM.

Raduan Md Taib

Anak Burung Merbah Dekat Kebun Rumah Kawan

2011-04-06T18:51:00.000+08:00

Senior Custom officer in graft probe falls to death at MACC building

2011-04-06T18:15:00.000+08:00

Senior Customs officer in graft probe falls to death at MACC building

KUALA LUMPUR: A senior Customs officer being investigated by the MACC for graft involving unpaid taxes is believed to have fallen to his death from the 3rd floor of the MACC Building in Jalan Cochrane on Wednesday morning.

The MACC has identified the officer as Selangor assistant director Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed, 56.

MACC director of investigations Datuk Mustafar Ali said Ahmad was among those detained on April 1 in a nationwide operation and released on bail the next day.

He had arrived at the MACC building here alone on a motorbike at 8.26am and asked to see the investigating officer who, however, was at a meeting.

Ahmad waited at the lobby until 9.30am. Then, an officer took him to a room on the third floor and was with him until 10.15am.

The officer then left the room for a few minutes to call the investigating offier.
When he returned, he found Ahmad missing.

Ahmad's body was found lying on the first floor open-air badminton court at 10.20am, Mustafar said.
Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur CPO Datuk Zulkifli Abdullah said a special task force has been set up to investigate the case, which has been classified as sudden death.

He said the body has been sent to Hospital Kuala Lumpur for a post mortem, and urged people not to speculate.

MACC'S STATEMENT ON THE INCIDENT
KUALA LUMPUR: Pada hari ini, 6 April 2011 diantara jam 10.15 pagi hingga jam 10.20 pagi satu kejadian telah berlaku di bangunan Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Cochrane, Kuala Lumpur dimana seorang individu telah ditemui meninggal dunia.
Individu yang ditemui meninggal dunia ini dikenal pasti sebagai Ahmad Sarbani bin Mohamed, berumur 56 tahun, seorang Penolong Pengarah Kastam daripada Jabatan Kastam DiRaja Malaysia, Selangor.
SPRM mengesahkan bahawa penama berkenaan adalah diantara pegawai Kastam yang telah ditahan pada 1 April 2011 jam 1.00 tengahari di Pejabat Kastam Pelabuhan Utara, Pelabuhan Kelang. Penama tersebut setelah membantu dalam siasatan yang melibatkan operasi 3B iaitu satu siasatan berkaitan kesalahan di bawah Akta Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia 2009, telah dilepaskan melalui jaminan pada hari Sabtu 2 April 2011 jam 12.30 tengahari. Penama tersebut telah pun meninggalkan pejabat SPRM Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur selepas dilepaskan melalui jaminan tersebut.

Pada hari ini, Rabu 6 April 2011 jam 8.26 pagi, penama berkenaan telah datang ke Pejabat SPRM Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur bersendirian dengan menunggang sebuah motorsikal. Penama ini telah meminta untuk berjumpa dengan pegawai penyiasat bagi berbincang mengenai kes terhadapnya. Oleh kerana pegawai-pegawai sedang bermesyuarat maka penama berkenaan telah menunggu di lobi pejabat sehingga jam 9.30 pagi.

Penama tersebut kemudian telah diiringi oleh seorang pegawai ke bilik pejabatnya untuk mendapatkan pegawai penyiasat menemui penama tersebut. Pegawai yang mengiringi penama tersebut telah berada bersamanya dalam bilik pejabat pegawai berkenaan.

Pada jam lebih kurang 10.15 pagi, pegawai yang mengiringi beliau telah meninggalkan penama tersebut di pejabatnya dan keluar sebentar pergi mendapatkan pegawai penyiasat. Dalam beberapa minit kemudian, pegawai tersebut telah kembali ke pejabatnya dan mendapati penama berkenaan tiada dalam bilik berkaitan.
Setelah mencari dalam kawasan pejabat, seorang pegawai telah terlihat satu tubuh manusia terlantar di tingkat 1 bangunan pejabat ini.

SPRM telah pun memaklumkan kejadian ini kepada keluarga simati dan pihak pengurusan jabatannya serta menyerahkan perkara ini kepada pihak Polis untuk mengambil sebarang tindakan.
* More on the death of Selangor Customs assistant director Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed in The Star on Thursday

Prosper and love thy neighbour

2011-04-05T23:52:00.000+08:00

Prosper and love thy neighbour

Ikim Views
By Datuk Nik Mustapha Haji Nik Hassan

The more fortunate should attempt to assist the less fortunate to progress while exploitative mechanisms in all aspects should be minimised and eventually eliminated.

IN our effort to build a stable and dynamic society, we have to adopt the right approach in economic arrangement in line with the principle of “prosper thy neighbour”.
Indeed, this is the right solution to address the economic predicament faced by humanity.
There is a need for everyone to be committed to a principle that individual success and social progress can be attained if everyone works in cooperation and harmony in all economic activities for common prosperity.
This approach insists that there must be a purpose for all in society to achieve economic advancement.
The more fortunate should attempt to assist the less fortunate to progress. Economically, everyone needs each other. The poor definitely require the assistance of the wealthy and vice-versa.

Exploitative mechanisms in all aspects should be minimised and eventually eliminated. Room and space for manipulation should be closed. This applies to all kinds of unethical conduct.
Prosperity should be shared in a just manner if society is to progress. Thus, the basic needs of the less fortunate have to be satisfied. This implies that every member of society has to be above the poverty line. The ability to realise this social justice can be the starting point towards sustainable success.
The Quran has given a clear guideline to mankind that “wealth should not circulate only among the rich”. (Quran 59:7). This guideline places great emphasis on distributive justice where opportunities are made available to everyone without exception.

This healthy environment creates strong motivation for everyone to work and to excel. The natural law of meritocracy will be a motivational force for individuals to excel. At the same, those who succeed should not neglect the less fortunate.
In a lengthy Madinan passage (Quran 2:260-74), the Quran states: “Expenditure on the needy is like a single grain that grows seven ears of corn, each ear containing a hundred or more grains, that those who spend in order to show off or who want recognition from their beneficiaries are like rocks upon which there is a thin layer of earth which is easily washed away by torrential rain”.
The Quran reiterates that “Satan inspires you with (fear of) poverty (for investing in society) and commands you obscenities; God, on the other hand, promises you forgiveness and prosperity (for such investment)”. (Quran 2:268)
God reminds the Muslim that in the absence of concern for the welfare of the poor, even prayers became hypocritical.
The Quran reminds: “Did you see the one who gives the lie to the Faith? It is he who maltreats orphans and works little for the feeding of the poor. Woe betide, then those who pray, yet are neglectful of their prayers – those who pray for show and even deny the use of their utensils (to the poor)”. (Quran 107: 1-7)
Islam, in the clear instruction above, condemns those who propagate a “beggar thy neighbour” approach to social arrangement.

Indeed, the attitude of not helping and not sharing prosperity with others can be a great obstacle not only to spiritual, but also economic, development. This is because subscribing to this principle can lead to social disequilibrium, which ultimately can affect economic and social progress.
The Quran also reminds humanity that civilisation can be destroyed if individuals commit serious vices like economic oppression and exploitation of the poor, political oppression of the poor, and vices of idolatry and permissiveness, as with the people of Noah and Lot.

In a very strong warning, Allah says: “When We want to destroy a town (ie a civilisation), We command its luxurious ones, so they commit unrighteousness in it – and when the judgement becomes ripe upon it, We destroy it utterly.” (Quran 17:16)

In the quest to develop society for the future, Malaysians should try their best to put into practice the principle of “prosper thy neighbour” in economic practices.
Man should work as a team for social betterment and no one should be left out in the development, and no one should be given special preference over the other.

This is where distributive justice should be given priority in economic development, not per capita advancement. In the present materialistic and individualistic society, this seems to be a tall order.
But through the commitment of those in authority, it is possible for all individuals to reject conflict for cooperation. This path requires spiritual and moral enlightenment.

There is no doubt that Islam wants Muslims to establish a political and social order based on fair and moral principles. Islam would like Muslims to realise a moderate society that upholds truth, justice and brotherhood among men.

It is described in the Quran as ummatan wasatan. Such an order should eliminate all corruption on Earth (fasad fi`l-ard) and reform society in all aspects so that the words of God reign supreme.

Thus, the Muslim community, has to go all out in line with the spirit of “command good and forbid evil” (Quran 3:104).

The ability to put into practice all aspects of Islamic principles, including “prosper thy neighbour” in economic organisation, is a holy struggle which requires in-depth knowledge and skill to guide society along the right path.

23 Religious Schools Get RM3.2million Federal Aid

2011-03-30T11:51:00.000+08:00

Some of the teachers at the get-together between Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also education minister, with school representatives and parent-teacher associations in Selangor at Sekolah Agama Menengah Tinggi Tengku Ampuan Rahimah, Sungai Manggis, yesterday. — NST picture by Roslin Mat Tahir

BANTING: The Federal Government has never shirked off its responsibility in opposition-ruled states, especially towards education development, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said.
As testimony to the Federal Government's commitment, Muhyiddin yesterday handed RM3.22 million in grants to 23 government-aided religious schools in Selangor.

He also announced RM1.4 million to be allocated for Sekolah Agama Rakyat (people's religious schools) and fardhu ain classes (religious classes) in the state involving over 90,000 students.

He said in the 2011 Budget RM9.6 million had been allocated for Selangor for religious education development.
He said the allocation were for teachers as well as for minor repairs, utilities and construction of schools.

He was speaking at a get-together with school representatives and parent-teacher associations in Selangor at Sekolah Agama Menengah Tinggi Tengku Ampuan Rahimah, Sungai Manggis.

Muhyiddin, who is also the education minister, said the opposition should go down to the grassroots and see the achievements of the Federal government instead of criticising.

He said the initiatives implemented by the government under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) had also shown results.

Citing an example, he said the ministry had achieved its target of promoting early childhood education under the Education National Key Result Area (NKRA). This involves 700,00 children.

He said the opposition had to understand how the GTP had progressed for the past one year.

"They said the GTP results were only rhetoric. Read the GTP 2010 Annual Report first.

"The GTP has surpassed many of the set targets.

"Go down to the ground and see for yourself what are the things achieved under the GTP."

Later, while addressing some 3,000 people at the 100-year anniversary celebration of Sekolah Sijangkang, Muhyiddin was pleased with the growing number of schools that had achieved a global standard.

These schools, he said would be rewarded accordingly under the New Deal (Bai'ah) programme. .

"Everyone in such schools will be rewarded, including the support staff.

"Can't they (the opposition) see how committed we are to boost the education sector?"

Muhyiddin also said the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had set purpose and initiatives to drive the nation to greater heights.

"Many have realised this and it shows in the past by-elections that have seen BN won with higher majority."

Muhyiddin later visited SJK (C) Jenjarum and presented cheques totalling RM2.7 million to two schools -- SJK (C) Jenjarum and SJK (C) Yoke Kuan Sekinchan -- for their expansion plans.

His walkabout in Selangor was the start of his nationwide visits to states to meet with the people and establish better rapport with the grassroots.

New explosion rocks stricken Japanese nuclear reactor

2011-03-14T16:51:00.000+08:00

TOKYO: Plumes of white smoke have been seen coming from the stricken Fukushima No 1 nuclear power plant following a loud explosion occurring at the plant's No 3 reactor, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (JNISA) said today.

According to a report by China's Xinhua news agency, JNISA has confirmed that an explosion occurred at around 11:08 a.m. local time on Monday and was likely triggered by a combination of oxygen and hydrogen mixing.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said that 7 missing and 3 injured after explosion at the nuclear plant.

The agency said that the wall of the reactor building has collapsed, confirming eye-witness reports that only the buildings skeletal structure remains.
The likelihood of high levels of radiation affecting people in the area is low, said the agency, but warned the 600 people that still remained within the 20-kilometer evacuation zone should leave immediately.

The agency also said that large amounts of hydrogen have amassed in the upper parts of the reactor building and that the pressure in the reactor building remains unusually high, similar to the situation with the No 1 reactor building, which also exploded on Saturday.

Cooling operations at the reactor are still continuing to ultimately preserve the containment unit, although coolant levels are low, the agency reported.
JNISA had independently verified, however, that the containment vessel in the reactor is still intact.

Speaking at an emergency press conference Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano announced Monday the explosion did not damage the reactor and containment vessel and that there is little possibility of mass radiation being leaked into the air.

Edano had feared Sunday that a hydrogen explosion could occur at the plant's No 3 reactor -- the latest reactor to face a possible meltdown, following a hydrogen blast on Saturday in the plant's No 1 unit.

Crippled by Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami, workers have been battling to stave off multiple reactor meltdowns at the faltering Fukushima plant.

More than 180,000 people have evacuated the area, and up to 160 may have been exposed to radiation, latest figures show. - BERNAMA

Read more: New explosion rocks stricken Japanese nuclear reactor
Video and live feed inside http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/NewexplosionrocksstrickenJapanesenuclearreactor/Article/#ixzz1GYtOOGNJ

They have 17 children and no regrets

2011-02-06T22:07:00.000+08:00

Mek Bedah Deraman with five of her 17 children at their home in Bachok recently. — Picture by Adnan Mohamad

BACHOK: If other couples have luxury cars, bungalows and other properties to be proud of, Omar Jusuh and his wife Mek Bedah Deraman have been blessed with different assets which they, too, can flaunt.

Their most prized possessions are their 16 children from their 37 years of marriage. The couple also adopted a baby boy, 13 years ago.

Neither Omar, 62, nor Mek Bedah, 58, has any regrets raising 17 children, although the family lives in poverty.

Proving their love for children, the couple from Kampung Alor Ganu here adopted a baby boy after finding that his parents could not afford to raise him.

"Having many children is actually fun. We admit that it is hard to raise them, especially when they were small, because most of them are boys.

"With my small income as a farmer at that time, I could only provide them daily meals of rice and ikan kembung for years. But my children have never complained. We feel they understand our situation," said Omar, who now works as a security guard at a housing estate.

Zurin heads the queue

2011-01-04T16:54:00.000+08:00

Komentar saya: Kecil-kecil cili api!!!

Zurin Hazlien Abd Halim, 7, looks a little apprehensive as she joins her classmates to queue up in SK Sinar Mutiara, Pekan. — NST picture by Mohd Rafi Mamat

PINT-SIZED Zurin Hazlien Abd Halim became the centre of attraction when she attended her first day of school at Sekolah Kebangsaan Sinar Mutiara in Sungai Miang, Pekan, yesterday. Standing just 60cm tall, the 7-year-old looked anxious when she had to head the queue while her Year One classmates, who were nearly twice her height, lined up behind her.

She hardly spoke to her classmates and it was her mother, Zurinah Tabingin, 34, who was seen attending to her and ensuring that Zurin would be able to adjust quickly in her new environment.

Zurin will not use a standard-issue chair, which is too large for her.
Instead she will use a motorised chair, specially designed by Universiti Malaysia Pahang three years ago.

The chair, which allows a person to adjust its height with a touch of a button was previously used by her brother, Zulhanif, who was only 72cm tall when he enrolled in the school in 2007.

Zurinah, a housewife, said only her eldest child was of normal height.

Teacher Khairuni Mohd Zin said she would ensure that Zurin was able to focus during lessons and that she received extra attention.

Read more: Zurin heads the queue http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles//15dek/Article/#ixzz0YcctrhO7

IS MERITOCRACY RACIST?

2010-08-29T02:04:00.000+08:00

IS MERITOCRACY RACIST?

Dr. Mahathir Mohamad

on August 24, 2010 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (237) | TrackBacks (0)

1. In 1964 Malaysia held its first elections. The Tunku had an understanding with the Chief Minister of Singapore, Mr Lee Kwan Yew that the PAP (People Action Party) would contest only in Singapore and would stay out of the rest of Malaysia. It was really not a smart kind of agreement. It was not put on paper at all. Only an understanding between two leaders.

2. It was not surprising that the PAP decided to contest in the peninsular. Lee had expected the Malaysian Chinese who had been represented in the Government only by the MCA could be persuaded to support him. If he defeated the MCA then the Tunku would replace the MCA with the PAP in the Alliance.

3. The PAP is a Chinese party largely. But it had always projected itself as non-racial. To win in Malaysia he had to appeal to Chinese chauvinism. However he could not do this openly.

4. Being the astute politician that he is, Lee came up with a slogan which did not sound chauvinistic but which played up Chinese sentiments to the core. The slogan was "Malaysian Malaysia".

5. While appearing to be appealing for all Malaysians the slogan was clearly suggesting that there was no equality between the Chinese and the Malays. He and his party was made out to be fighting for equality between the Chinese and the Malays, whereas the MCA represented only the Chinese towkays.

6. The Malays were alarmed at the prospect of the Peninsular Chinese combining with Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak Chinese to outnumber them. Split as they were between PAS and UMNO, their chances of continuing to dominate Malaysian politics was at risk.

7. Strangely the PAP bid failed against the MCA. But the Tunku was shocked and decided that Singapore's inclusion in Malaysia posed great danger. One year after the election Singapore was expelled. But the PAP chauvinistic legacy was taken up by the DAP. And the slogan "Malaysian Malaysia" continued to figure in Malaysian politics, evolving into a new catchword, "Meritocracy". If "Malaysian Malaysia" conjures equality between races, "Meritocracy" implies something stronger. It implies dominance by the race with the greatest merit in every field; in education, in business and in all fields of human endeavour.

8. When the Malays, understanding the implications, protest against meritocracy, they were condemned as racists. Faced with being labelled as such, most Malays dared not support even the NEP. Some, perhaps due to mistaken pride have begun to support meritocracy, undermining the Malay position further.

9. Today we see a lot of Malay NGOs trying to defend the Malay position. Invariably they have been labelled racists. The unfortunate truth is that those who labelled them are equally racists because of their advocacy of meritocracy.

10. It is the same with political party which appeal on the basis of the religion of Islam. In Malaysia the Malays are all Muslims. There are quite a large number of Indian Muslims in Malaysia but they do not figure in the political party said to be Islamic. The party, by using Islam, knows full well they are appealing to Malays almost exclusively. But the intention is not to defend the Malays but merely to gain their support. One can say they are not Malay racists. Rather they are Malay political opportunists.

11. That is why they find no difficulty in switching tactics in order to win the support of the non-Malays. Where before they condemn UMNO for working with non-Muslims, today their co-operation with non-Muslims knows no bounds.

12. The difference between UMNO and the other parties is that UMNO is openly partisan, not hiding its concern for the well-being of the Malays. Unfortunately because of mismanagement it has become weak. That is why today we have Perkasa and other Malay NGOs who are as openly concerned about the Malays as the UMNO once was. The condemnation by those said to be advocating meritocracy is because they see the racism of the meritocrats, just as the Malays of 1964 saw the racism of "Malaysian Malaysia".

13. What we are seeing today is not a campaign against racism but a campaign by racists against racists. The meritocrats are as much racists as the Malay NGOs, and Perkasa.

14. Incidentally by writing this I know the meritocrat racists will condemn me as racist. So be it.

****

ADAKAH MERITOKRASI BERSIFAT PERKAUMAN?

1. Pada tahun 1964, Malaysia telah mengadakan pilihanraya umum yang pertama. Tunku dan Ketua Menteri Singapura Lee Kwan Yew bersetuju supaya PAP (Parti Tindakan Rakyat - People's Action Party pimpinan Kwan Yew) hanya bertanding di Singapura dan tidak di mana-mana kawasan di Semenanjung Malaysia. Ianya bukanlah satu perjanjian yang bijak. Tidak pun dimeterai secara rasmi. Hanya persefahaman di antara dua orang pemimpin.

2. Tidak mengejutkan PAP kemudiannya memutus untuk bertanding di Semenanjung. Lee menjangkakan yang kaum Cina Malaysia yang diwakili di dalam Kerajaan oleh parti MCA dapat di galakkan untuk menyokong beliau. Jika MCA Berjaya dikalahkan, Lee percaya Tunku akan gantikan MCA dengan PAP di dalam Perikatan.

3. PAP ialah sebuah parti yang didominasi kaum Cina. Tetapi ia sentiasa mengetengahkan ianya sebagai parti yang tidak berlandaskan kaum. Untuk menang di Malaysia dianya mesti menarik sokongan chauvinis Cina. Ini tidak dapat dilakukan secara terbuka.

4. Sebagai ahli politik yang cekap, Lee memperkenalkan slogan yang tidak terlalu berbaur chauvinis tetapi tetap menyemarakkan sentimen Cina. Slogan tersebut ialah "Malaysian Malaysia".

5. Sementara ianya ternampak menarik bagi semua rakyat Malaysia, slogan tersebut sebenarnya menarik perhatian kepada tidak adanya kesamarataan antara kaum Cina dan kaum Melayu. Dia dan partinya diketengahkan sebagai memperjuangkan kesamarataan antara Cina dan Melayu, manakala MCA hanya mewakili golongan towkay Cina.

6. Orang Melayu berasa cemas akan kemungkinan penyatuan kaum Cina di Singapura, Sabah dan Sarawak akan menyebabkan orang Melayu menjadi kaum minoriti. Perpecahan di antara PAS dan UMNO menyebabkan peluang orang Melayu untuk terus mendominasi politik di Malaysia menghadapi risiko.

7. Yang anehnya PAP gagal dalam cubaannya menentang MCA. Tetapi Tunku amat terkejut dan memutuskan yang penyertaan Singapura di dalam Malaysia membawa bahaya. Setahun selepas pilihanraya, Singapura disingkir. Tetapi legasi chauvinis PAP ini diteruskan oleh DAP. Slogan "Malaysian Malaysia" terus dimainkan di dalam politik Malaysia, dan berubah menjadi satu perkataan yang baru, "Meritokrasi". Jika "Malaysian Malaysia" membawa makna kesamarataan antara kaum, "Meritokrasi" membawa maksud yang lebih keras. Ianya bererti dominasi oleh sesuatu kaum yang mempunyai merit di dalam setiap lapangan; di dalam pendidikan, perniagaan dan semua lapangan yang diceburi manusia.

8. Apabila orang Melayu, memahami akan akibatnya, mula menentang meritokrasi, mereka dicerca sebagai bersifat perkauman. Kerana tidak mahu dilabel sedemikian, ramai orang Melayu tidak berani menyokong Dasar Ekonomi Baru. Ada sesetengah, mungkin kerana sikap bodoh sombong, mula menyokong meritokrasi dan menekan lagi kedudukan orang Melayu.

9. Hari ini kita lihat banyak NGO Melayu bangkit mempertahankan kedudukan orang Melayu. Dan semestinya mereka ini dilabel sebagai bersifat perkauman. Malang sekali, sebenarnya yang melabel mereka ini juga bersifat perkauman kerana sokongan mereka terhadap meritokrasi.

10. Sama juga dengan parti politik yang meraih sokongan menggunakan agama Islam. Di Malaysia, orang Melayu kesemuanya beragama Islam. Terdapat juga sebilangan besar kaum India Muslim di Malaysia tetapi mereka ini tidak berperanan dalam parti politik yang dikatakan parti Islam ini. Dengan mengguna Islam, parti ini sedar yang ianya hanya untuk menarik secara eksklusif sokongan orang Melayu. Niat mereka hanya untuk meraih sokongan orang Melayu dan bukan untuk mempertahan kedudukan orang Melayu. Mereka ini boleh dikatakan bukan bersifat perkauman pro-Melayu. Tetapi mereka mengambil kesempatan politik ke atas orang Melayu.

11. Itulah juga sebab kenapa mereka tidak punyai masalah menukar taktik untuk menarik sokongan bukan Melayu. Jika dulu mereka mencerca UMNO berkerjasama dengan bukan Islam, hari ini kerjasama mereka dengan bukan Islam tiada batasan.

12. Perbezaan di antara UMNO dan lain-lain parti ialah UMNO secara terang menyebelahi sesuatu pihak, tidak menyembunyi akan perjuangannya untuk kebajikan orang Melayu. Malangnya kerana kelemahan urusan pentadbiran ianya menjadi lemah. Sebab itulah hari ini ada Perkasa dan lain-lain NGO Melayu yang secara terbuka memperjuangkan nasib Melayu sebagaimana UMNO terdahulu. Pencercaan oleh golongan menyokong meritokrasi ialah kerana mereka melihat NGO Melayu bersifat perkauman, sebagaimana orang Melayu pada tahun 1964 melihat sifat perkauman dalam "Malaysian Malaysia".

13. Yang kita lihat hari ini bukanlah kempen menentang sifat perkauman tetapi kempen oleh pejuang perkauman menentang pejuang perkauman yang lain. Penyokong meritokrasi juga bersifat perkauman sebagaimana NGO Melayu dan Perkasa.

14. Sehubungan itu saya juga akan dicerca sebagai bersifat perkauman oleh pejuang meritokrasi yang bersifat perkauman. Biarkan.

Umat Islam Diminta Bertenang?

2010-08-24T04:46:00.001+08:00

Pendapat DRT: Mengapa bila Rumah Ibadat Agama lain di cemar semua pemimpin Negara berpusu datang menziarahi. Tapi bila Rumah Ibadat Islam dicemari tidak pula ramai yang datang melihat keadaan. Adakah Rumah Ibadat Islam ini kurang Mulia kah?

Umat Islam diminta bertenang?

Mohd. Hasbi Ismail, melihat cermin dan dinding Surau Taman Seri Pulai, Temiang, Seremban, yang disimbah cat, semalam.

SEREMBAN 23 Ogos - Umat Islam di Taman Seri Pulai, Temiang dekat sini dinasihatkan supaya bertenang dan melakukan ibadah solat seperti biasa di surau yang disimbah cat merah dan dilempar botol minuman keras oleh individu tidak bertanggungjawab pagi ini.
Pengerusinya, Mohd. Hasbi Ismail juga meminta ahli kariah dan penduduk di situ supaya tidak melakukan sebarang tindakan yang boleh menyalahi undang-undang dan menyerahkan siasatan berhubung kejadian berkenaan kepada pihak polis.
"Biarlah polis menjalankan siasatan. Kepada umat Islam dan ahli kariah, teruskanlah datang ke surau ini untuk bersolat dan usah bimbang dengan kejadian yang berlaku itu," katanya kepada Utusan Malaysia di sini hari ini.
Dalam kejadian pukul 1 hingga 5 pagi tadi, sekumpulan ahli kariah yang hendak bersolat subuh berjemaah di Surau Taman Seri Pulai, di situ terkejut apabila mendapati bangunan surau itu disimbah cat merah.
Lebih mengejutkan, surau berkenaan yang baru sahaja beroperasi di situ sejak bulan lalu dilempar botol minuman keras oleh individu yang tidak dikenali.
"Kita berharap, pihak yang bertanggungjawab dengan perbuatan menyimbah cat dan membaling botol minuman keras di surau ini dapat ditangkap dan dibawa ke muka pengadilan," tegasnya.
Tambah Mohd. Hasbi, insiden ini kali pertama berlaku terhadap surau berkenaan sejak mula beroperasi 24 Julai lalu.
"Kalau ikut kata penduduk di sini, mereka mendakwa kejadian itu berlaku sekitar pukul 3 hingga 4 pagi ini kerana mereka terdengar bunyi botol kaca dipecahkan.
"Jadi apabila ada jemaah yang datang ke surau pagi ini untuk solat subuh sebelum 5.53 pagi, mereka terkejut kerana mendapati pintu utama dan beberapa dinding di surau ini disimbah dengan cat merah.
"Mereka terkejut apabila ada juga serpihan kaca daripada botol minuman keras yang berselerak," katanya.
Mohd. Hasbi berkata, dia juga hairan bagaimana tin cat yang dipercayai digunakan untuk menyimbah surau berkenaan terdapat di belakang rumahnya.
"Saya terdengar bunyi orang melemparkan sesuatu dan apabila diperiksa pagi ini, ia adalah tin cat yang kita percaya digunakan untuk menyimbah surau ini," katanya.
Sementara itu, Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Pelancongan, Perpaduan, Kebudayaan, Kesenian, Warisan dan Adat Istiadat Melayu negeri, Datuk Mohammad Razi Kail dan Timbalan Ketua UMNO Bahagian Seremban, Datuk Zakaria Nordin turut berada di tempat kejadian.
"Kita serahkan kepada pihak polis untuk menyiasat kejadian ini. Saya harap semua umat Islam di negeri ini dan di sini bersabar dan bertenang," katanya.
Manakala Zakaria berkata, isu agama ini sensitif dan janganlah pula ia merebak menjadi satu ancaman kelak.

The Legacy Of The Mandailing Mansion

2010-08-06T23:15:00.000+08:00

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The exterior of Istana Raja Bilah in Papan, Perak gives a glimpse of the Grandeur of the Mandailing Mansion in its heyday - NST picture by Muhaizan Yahya

Read more: MANDAILING MANSION: Stately grace of old 'istana' http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/12MAND/Article#ixzz0vpy85Jl9

Rumah Raja Bilah is a 'standout' mansion by the Sungai Perak where the rich and famous of old Perak built their palatial homes. JASPAL SINGH, HALIMATUL HAMID and ILI LIYANA MOKHTAR report.
BY any measure or design, the Bagas Godang (literally large house) of Papan is awe-inspiring.

Situated atop a hillock, the stately, palatial mansion certainly befitted the dignified persona of its first owner -- Raja Bilah, a Mandailing aristocrat of Sumatran descent, who made Perak his home and final resting place.

Completed in 1896, the two-storey villa has always been the largest building in Papan.
Situated next to his 128-year-old timber house (now known as Rumah Asal), overlooking the Papan mosque, the mansion, which is now referred to as the Rumah Besar, was built by Raja Bilah when he was the penghulu of Papan.

Acccording to Abdur-Razzaq Lubis, a local expert on Mandailing history, once Raja Bilah and his followers had attained some measure of prosperity, his concern was to ensure the long-term future of the Mandailings in Perak.

"Although most of the Mandailings left Papan by the late 1890s, Raja Bilah maintained his vision that it would be the community hub in Kinta.

"The Rumah Besar was the local equivalent of Bagas Godang, the residence of the Mandailing Raja (in the Mandailing heartland of Sumatra)," said Abdur-Razzaq in an interview with the New Straits Times recently.

Abdur-Razzaq, who with his wife, Khoo Salmah Nasution, co-authored a comprehensive book on the early history of the Mandailing in Malaysia titled Raja Bilah and the Mandailings in Perak: 1875-1911, said the Rumah Besar Raja Bilah looked similar to the mansions of Malay aristocracy and the Chinese miners of Kinta. But the interior was different.

On the ground floor was a large hall with octagonal columns and a raised platform (pangkin). In Mandailing architecture, the eight-sided columns symbolised that the building was erected with the support of people from the eight directions of the compass.

Upstairs, there were a few guest rooms and another large hall.

The Rumah Besar, functionally, was more like a Sapo Godang (a hall for the conference of Mandailing nobles and elders) than a Bagas Godang (a Raja's residence), said Abdur-Razzaq, adding that neither Raja Bilah nor any other family member ever moved into the Rumah Besar.

Historically, it was used for weddings, feasts and other receptions.

"But, most of all, it was a gathering place for the Mandailings and other Muslims of western Kinta, many of whom would come to Raja Bilah with their problems and proposals, especially after Friday prayers at the Papan mosque."

Going by Raja Bilah's will, the Rumah Besar and its "contents" were a family endowment or private waqf.

"It was a tradition among the Mandailing chiefs, and men and women of standing, to leave an ancestral home for the clan. It would serve to bring the children and descendants together during ceremonial occasions, such as marriages and Muslim feasts."

Abdur-Razzaq said that before work commenced, supplications (doa) were made and an auspicious day chosen to start building the house, adding that a fistful of soil from the Mandailing homeland would be scattered on the foundation of the mansion.

"Although constructed mainly by Chinese craftsmen, the Mandailings chipped in, gotong-royong fashion, helping their chief put up the house. Elephants may have been used to raise the large timber beams."

A penghulu's office was built into the buttress wall along the side of the hillock, and this was thereafter called Balai Penghulu.

The descendants of Raja Bilah, Abdur-Razzaq said, had always called the council hall Rumah Besar, but in more recent times, it has come to be known as Istana Raja Bilah (Raja Bilah's Palace), in the mistaken notion that Raja Bilah was a Malay Raja and his house, an istana.

According to Saadiah Kamaruddin, the great-granddaughter of Raja Bilah, who now lives in Rumah Asal: "My mother told me that the large hall on the ground floor was used for feasts, meetings and other receptions. It was also my playground when I was a little girl. ."

Saadiah, 69, said the men would dine on the pangkin at the end of the hall after Friday prayers at the Papan mosque. It is the only mosque in town and still stands tall, although it is no longer used as most Mandailing families moved out after 1910.

A postal bedframe occupies the space in the hall, while a desk and a steel single bed frame are in one of the rooms.

Saadiah said the Rumah Besar was always locked and would only be opened when it was in need of cleaning or at the request of family members and visitors.

"We don't hold ceremonies or feasts in the mansion anymore; not even when the whole family returns for Hari Raya. Everyone would gather at the Rumah Asal."

Saadiah said the Heritage Department had visited Rumah Besar on several occasions and promised to restore and preserve her great grandfather's mansion.

"They replaced a few broken wooden planks in the staircase and under the door of the main entrance, but it was attacked by termites. Now, we can't open the door because the rotten wood makes it hard to push it open."

Saadiah said the green walls in the Rumah Besar were scraped, but not repainted, and looked more like a "ghost house" now.

Saadiah's grandmother was the daughter of Raja Bilah. She was born in 1941 and grew up during the Japanese occupation when most Mandailing families had left Papan for greener pastures.

"I don't have children. My sister takes care of the mansion and our house when I am not here."

The Architecture Department of University Technology Malaysia (UTM) made a measured drawing of the Rumah Besar in 1993. It was used as a location set for local and international movies, the most famous being Anna And The King in 1999.

Community taking stock of identity and legacy

REMEMBER Aminuddin Baki (1926-1965)?

He was the "Father of Education" and a Mandailing.

The Mandailings are members of an ethnic group who first arrived on our shores between the 1840s and 1870s from north-western Sumatra. Many ended up in Perak and Selangor, where they worked as miners, traders and factory hands.

They subsequently established themselves in more respectable positions, like Aminuddin, who rose to become the chief adviser on education to the government (the equivalent of director-general of education today).

Aminuddin, who hailed from Chemor, near Ipoh, was responsible for getting Bahasa Melayu recognised as the national language and as the medium of instruction in schools in post-Merdeka Malaya.

"Many of the Mandailings in Malaysia today -- including myself -- are descended from these immigrants," said local Mandailing expert Abdur-Razzaq Lubis.

The Mandailings gradually involved themselves in local events, such as the Pahang War (1857-63), Selangor War (1867-73) and Perak War (1875-1876).

Abdur-Razzaq said the Mandailings were first labelled "foreign Malays" and later, "Malays" for "administrative convenience".

"By 1931, 'Mendeling' was altogether removed from the British Malaya census."

In the peninsula, he said, the Mandailings not only identified with Malayan (and subsequently Malaysian) nationalism, but were also compelled to identify with the Malays to the extent of compromising and suppressing their own identity and culture.

The process of acculturation and assimilation was assisted by a measure of colonial social-engineering, followed by post-Merdeka state conditioning, he added.

"Once the Mandailing in Malaya were redefined as Malays, it was only a matter of time before their political-economic functions were prescribed accordingly."

But, said Abdur-Razzaq, there was now an awareness among educated Mandailing who realise how important it was for the community to take stock of its cultural, social and political identity in a globalising world.

"We believe that the past is for our ancestors, the present is ours, the future is for our children. As the Mandailing elders always tell their children, every generation has a legacy to protect," said Abdur-Razzaq, who has a website, www.mandailing.org, detailing various aspects of the Mandailing community here and abroad.

Papan's penghulu and rich history

FORMER headmaster Zainal Harun, 80, from Bota, cannot recall much about the house that sits majestically on the other side of the Perak river, except that it belonged to "someone important".

"All houses along the Perak river belonged to penghulus, powerful people who heard criminal and civil cases. In the past, the river was the main mode of transportation, so it was a strategic place for people of importance."

Zainal said the only thing he remembered about Papan was that it was a tin-mining area populated mainly by Chinese settlers.

"As time went by, the younger generation left for better prospects in the cities. That is why the town is deserted now."

Zainal said Papan was quite a distance from his kampung and it was too much of a hassle to travel there to perform prayers at the mosque there.

"But, usually, the penghulu would treat the kampung folk to a 'feast' after Friday prayers."

There were many old mansions and houses of historical value situated by the river, he said.

"Some of these houses have rich histories just waiting to be discovered. Research should be done into these houses and maybe they can be restored for the younger generation to appreciate.

"If I remember correctly, there were many communists in Papan and people used to say that it was a dangerous place."

No plans to restore glory of building

THE Rumah Besar Raja Bilah was not just recognised as the symbol of greatness of the Mandailing community leader in Papan.

It was remembered by many as a film set, most notably by Oscar-winning production designer Luciana Arrighi for the movie Anna and the King (1999).

Arrighi was fascinated with Papan. She described it as a ghost town on the edge of large mining lakes, set in a mysterious cul-de-sac, shrouded and surrounded by dark, forested hills.

However, the mansion will soon be but a distant memory as it slowly decays in the "ghost town".

Seven years have passed since it was last restored by the National Museum. The latest check by New Straits Times reporters revealed that signs of termite infestation could be seen on its wooden staircases and under the doors. Some sections of the roof were also dilapidated.

A source from the National Heritage Department said the department was involved in conservation efforts of historical buildings in the country. However, Rumah Besar Raja Bilah is not on the Perak list.

The source said the Rumah Besar was a family endowment or private waqf, hence its restoration and preservation should be shouldered by Raja Bilah's descendants.

Denda RM500,000 jika tipu sijil dan logo halal

2010-08-02T17:30:00.000+08:00

Denda RM500,000 jika tipu sijil dan logo halal

02/08/2010 4:11pm

KUALA LUMPUR 2 Ogos - Pengusaha restoran boleh dikenakan hukuman maksimum penjara lima tahun atau denda RM500,000 atau kedua-duanya sekali, sekiranya didapati melakukan penipuan dalam sijil dan logo halal.
Syarikat pula berdepan hukuman maksimum penjara lima tahun atau denda RM1 juta, atau kedua-duanya sekali, jika melakukan perbuatan yang sama.
Menteri Perdagangan Dalam Negeri, Koperasi dan Kepenggunaan, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob berkata, tindakan itu akan dikuatkuasakan sebaik sahaja Parlimen meluluskan pindaan terhadap Akta Perihal Dagangan 1972.
"Kementerian sedang dalam proses membuat pindaan ke atas Akta Perihal Dagangan 1972, yang akan dilaksanakan tidak lama lagi selepas kementerian membentangkan akta ini, yang kita jangka akan dibuat pada sesi Oktober yang akan datang ini,” katanya ketika menggulung perbahasan Rang Undang-undang Perlindungan Pengguna (pindaan) 2010 di Dewan Negara hari ini.
Akta sedia ada memperuntukkan hukuman maksimum penjara tiga tahun atau denda RM100,000 atau kedua-duanya sekali bagi pesalah individu, manakala syarikat pula berdepan hukuman maksimum penjara tiga tahun atau denda RM250,000 atau kedua-duanya sekali, jika sabit kesalahan.
Ismail Sabri berkata selepas pindaan akta tersebut, mana-mana pihak yang didapati mengulangi kesalahan tersebut, tempoh hukuman penjara ditambah kepada 10 tahun manakala denda pula dinaikkan kepada RM1 juta. - Bernama

Malay Unity and the role played by Perak Mufti

2010-07-30T18:12:00.000+08:00

DRT Comments: It is interesting to read this article written by a seasoned Chinese journalist looking at the various issues within the bigger context of Malay Unity

Mufti plays role of mediator

INSIGHT: By JOCELINE TAN

Malay unity is making headlines again and this time no less than the influential Mufti of Perak, Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria, is the hottest topic of political chatter.

TAN Sri Harussani Zakaria, the outspoken Mufti of Perak, is no stranger to controversy. But he may have stepped up to his most controversial role yet in offering himself as the mediator in forging peace and cooperation between Umno and PAS.

His call for Malay unity came with the dire prediction that, unless they unite, the Malays are in danger of losing power in the next general election.

It was a highly political statement from a mufti. It went down well with Umno but he is now under heavy fire from PAS leaders and supporters.

But he is not in the least flustered.

“I am not taking sides with anybody. What I say is what I believe is for the good of Muslims and our beliefs,” he said.

Harussani was the rallying figure at a gathering of the Gagasan Melayu Perak (GMP or Perak Malay Movement) last weekend. GMP is one of those Malay rights groups that have been part of the post-2008 political landscape.

Or as Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah sees it, these groups are part of the emerging third force in civil society who want a say on the future of the nation.

Like Perkasa and the Terengganu-based Gertak, GMP champions all things Malay – Malay rights, the royalty, Islam, Bahasa Malaysia and Malay culture. Its functions are often preceded by a display of Malay silat. Its membership also tends to overlap with that of Umno. Thus, it was not suprising that PAS saw red when Harussani lent his weight to GMP.

Harussani is a very influential ulama and his support for the Malay unity cause probably set off alarm bells in PAS.

PAS leaders from Perak rejected outright his peace mediation offer and told him to stick to his duties as mufti. They also do not see PAS going into any unity arrangement with Umno.

Malay unity is a notion that has been blowing hot and cold over the decades without amounting to much.
“They oppose us; then they want to unite with us. They are what we call gila talak, you know, quarrel, divorce and reconcile over and over again,” said Asmuni Awi, the PAS central committee member from Perak.

Yet it was barely a year or so ago that several top leaders in PAS were toying with the idea of a unity government with Umno. So what is going on?

Some said PAS had been ready to talk with a Pak Lah-led Umno. They felt comfortable with the laidback Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

But Umno under Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is a different kettle of fish altogether. Najib is a seasoned player. He is not surrounded by a bunch of young and inexperienced advisors, he knows the game and he means to win.

Moreover, PAS and its Pakatan Rakyat partners have been deeply distrustful of Umno after the Perak takeover. That episode in the state’s history also caused a rift between them and Harussani who stood by the Perak Sultan’s decision on the takeover.

The Perak Mufti had played a pivotal role because the chain of events in Perak would have been vastly different had he taken his moral endorsement elsewhere.

“What they want to say about me is up to them. I’m only doing my duty as a mufti,” Harussani said of the way PAS has turned on him. He said he accepted the invitation to speak at the GMP’s gathering because he agreed with their goal of Malay and Muslim unity.

“I am not playing politics. I am 71, too old for politics,” he said.

Motives questioned

The question being asked now is, how real is this push for Malay unity?
As Asmuni pointed out, Umno only talks about Malay unity when its support is on the decline, as in 1990 when it lost Kelantan and in 1999 when Malays deserted the party after Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sacking.
“When it did well in 2004, there was nothing about Malay unity,” he said.

Some see it as a ploy to dilute the PAS influence among Malays, to stop them from giving their votes to PKR or even DAP in the next elections.

However, said publisher Datuk A. Kadir Jasin, the Malay sense of discomfit and fear of losing political control is very real.

The Malay right wing is still struggling to deal with the ascendancy of new and especially non-Malay voices in the political arena.

While there are some who are critical of PAS’ alliance with the DAP, whom they see as a Chinese chauvinist party, others are still unsure of the 1Malaysia idea which they think will lead to an erosion of Malays rights.
“There is a lot of chatter going on among Malays, a lot of concern about the position of the Malays and Islam,” said Kadir.

PAS and Umno, he said, are making a mistake if they ignore such chatter and the activities of these Malay groups.

“The fact that the membership of these groups overlap with that of established political parties is a sign that there are Malays out there who feel that the stance of established parties is not in tangent with Malay and Muslim concerns.

“Otherwise, how do you explain Malay academics, intellectuals and businessmen rallying around this man called Ibrahim Ali?”

Datuk Ibrahim Ali and Perkasa have been attacked from all sides but his ultra-Malay message has resonated among a segment of Malays.

Of late, Ibrahim has taken to sending out text messages with the heading “Dari Jaguh Kampung” (from the kampung hero). When he returned to his Pasir Mas constituency recently, his supporters staged a hero’s welcome for him and carried him on a pedestal.

Others like Juhaidi Yean Abdullah, a former aide to an Umno minister, viewed the Malay unity effort as the Malay way of giving notice to the non-Malays “to not push them to the limit because the Malays can be a big and powerful group.”

Exploring peace

For Umno politician Dr Faizal Tajuddin, anything that fosters unity is good. He sees Harussani’s encouragement to explore peace and unity among the Malays as part of Islamic teaching.
“His concerns are justified. If you follow the political discussion on the Internet, there is so much hatred that it’s scary. It’s virtual but it’s also a reflection of society. There are instances in Perak where one side refuses to attend the other side’s kenduri, things we thought happened only elsewhere,” said Dr Faizal who is from Pasir Salak, Perak.

Some in PAS have accused Harussani of being the “Jaguh Umno” or Umno hero. He has been making news in Harakah almost daily over the last one week.

Even Ahmad Awang, a fellow Perakian and schoolmate from Kolej Islam Malaya, has been involved in a running battle with him on the Internet

“He is sincere but his argument is too Malay-based. What he is saying is more about Umno unity than Malay unity,” said Ahmad who is a former PAS vice-president.

The irony is that Harussani was seen as pro-PAS for the most part of his career as the Perak Mufti which began in 1992.

He was regarded as too independent and conservative. He was then seen as hostile to Umno because he was one of the few government-employed ulama who would criticise the policies of the Mahathir administration.

But he commanded such respect among Muslims in the state that no one could touch him.
“He is a powerful religious figure. Any Malay political party would want him on its side. You could say we lost him during Tun Mahathir’s time,” said Juhaidi.

He has also made news for the right and wrong reasons. For instance, he caused a huge sensation with his claim about mass apostasy (which turned out to be baseless) and about how Bollywood movies promoted negative values.

The beauty of all that is the Perak royal house took all of it in its stride; and that may explain his loyalty to the sovereign in the latter’s moment of need.

More recently, he has been all fire and brimstone in opposing the sports betting licence. Earlier last week, he lent his two-cents worth to the argument that Malays should not wear football jerseys with the symbol of the crucifix or the “Red Devils” slogan.

“He will voice his opinion regardless of the political party and he was so angry about the gambling issue. All the mosques in Perak took the cue from him, you should have heard the sermons on Friday,” said Dr Faizal.
Despite his fierce appearance, Harussani is very accessible, is not afraid of tough questions and speaks good English because he is one of the few ulama who had gone to an English-medium school. He can be hard-hitting and intimidating but he is not without his own sense of humour.

But the PAS love affair with Harussani waned after the 2008 elections.
He had played a role in trying to forge a PAS-Umno coalition government in Perak when the state fell to Pakatan, with DAP in pole position. His concern over Malay unity, political power and the paramount position of Islam was apparent even then.

He is no longer the darling of PAS.

The Malay unity idea, said former Abim president Yusri Mohamed, will remain largely an idea.
“It would be really good if it happens but I don’t see Umno and PAS coming to any consensus. Both have the interests of Muslims at heart but the political divide is too great,” said Yusri.

MIDA DIJENAMA SEMULA, PUSAT SEHENTI PELABUR

2010-07-28T02:58:00.000+08:00

MIDA dijenama semula, pusat sehenti pelabur

27/07/2010 12:57pm

SEOUL 27 Julai - Lembaga Pembangunan Perindustrian Malaysia (MIDA) kini dikenali sebagai Lembaga Pembangunan Pelaburan Malaysia berikutan penjenamaan semulanya dalam usaha menarik lebih banyak pelaburan asing ke Malaysia.
Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin berkata, penjenamaan semula itu bagi membolehkan MIDA menjadi pusat sehenti untuk memudahkan pelabur terutamanya dalam proses mendapatkan kelulusan projek pelaburan di Malaysia dalam tempoh paling singkat iaitu sehari.
Berikutan itu, tiga akta berkaitan akan dibawa untuk pindaan pada sesi Dewan Rakyat Oktober ini iaitu Akta Promosi dan Pelaburan, Akta Cukai Pendapatan dan Akta MIDA.
“Penjenamaan semula MIDA sudah dilakukan pada peringkat pentadbiran dengan penubuhan sebuah jawatankuasa yang bertanggung jawab meluluskan semua pelaburan bernilai sehingga RM1 bilion.
"Jawatankuasa ini yang dianggotai wakil-wakil koridor pembangunan negara dan Kementerian Kewangan yang dipengerusikan oleh Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
“Semua kelulusan dibuat jawatankuasa ini adalah muktamad,” katanya pada sidang media di sini selepas bersarapan bersama-sama wartawan Malaysia yang menyertai lawatan rasmi empat hari beliau ke Korea Selatan bermula semalam hingga Khamis ini.

Di bawah pindaan itu, Muhyiddin berkata, MIDA akan mempunyai bidang kuasa untuk memberi insentif kepada pelabur tanpa merujuk kepada Majlis Tindakan Ekonomi Negara dan Kementerian Kewangan.
Untuk membolehkan MIDA memberi kelulusan segera terhadap permohonan pelaburan dari luar negara, katanya, beberapa kuasa daripada agensi berkaitan seperti Jabatan Kastam dan Eksais Diraja, Jabatan Imigresen serta pihak berkuasa tempatan akan diperturunkan kepada lembaga berkenaan dengan menempatkan pegawai berkaitan di bawah MIDA. - Bernama

Married GROs Cought. These GROs are Married or they went through Marriages of Convenience ??

2010-07-28T02:32:00.001+08:00

Married GROs caught. These GROs are Married or they went through Marriages of Convenience ??

GEORGE TOWN: At least six men turned up at the Patani Road police station claiming that their wives were among 28 foreign guest relations officers (GROs) arrested during a raid at an entertainment outlet here yesterday.
The men came with marriage certificates, hoping to secure the release of the women from police custody but were turned away.
A police spokesman said they were detaining the women under the Immigration Act for 14 days to facilitate investigations.

Shamed: The GROs being brought to Patani Road police station to facilitate investigations.

“We want to question the women first although the men had come with their marriage certificates,” he said.
Police, he said, would also investigate and question the men who claimed the foreign women were their wives.
“We will check the authenticity of the marriage certificates and other pertinent documents,” he said.
In the latest raid codenamed Ops Noda, State CID chief Senior Asst Comm I (SAC I) Datuk Wan Abdullah Tuanku Said said 28 foreign women were rounded up at an entertainment outlet in Madras Lane.
Also nabbed during the 12.25am raid was a 36-year-old female caretaker.
The GROs – 22 Chinese nationals, four Indonesians and two Vietnamese – were busy entertaining customers when police raided the premises.
SAC I Wan Abdullah said the women, all in their 20s and 30s, were without valid documents and had overstayed in the country.
He said police were also looking for the outlet owner.

Show Racists The Red Card

2010-07-17T14:15:00.000+08:00

DRT's Comments: Who are Mr M Veera Padiyan, the Star Columnist referring to?? Suqiu, Hindraf, or Dong Jiao Zhong?? It is worth the while to get an anwer from him and to ask him the reasons why he is bringing this issue of racism now and not in 1999 and 2008 respectively. Is he practicing double standards and being hypocritical?? One group can do it while another can not?? Is this true democracy??

Thursday July 15, 2010

Show racists the red card

Along The Watchtower
By M. VEERA PANDIYAN - THE STAR

Malaysians expect the Government to take a firm stand against extremists but not necessarily through the use of outmoded laws such as the Internal Security Act.

Lebih Ramai Cari Hartanah Untuk Pelaburan

2010-07-17T13:44:00.005+08:00

Pendapat DRT: Apakah yang kita dapat pelajari dari kajian iProperty.com ini?? Kita perlu gunakan wang simpanan kita untuk beli hartanah umumnya dan rumah kedai khasnya. Pada mereka yang ada rumah atau rumah kedai yang telah langsai pembayarannya yakni 'free from encumberances' bolehlah rumah atau rumah kedai tersebut di 'refinance' semula. Dengan duit dari 'refinancing' ini bolehlah beli rumah kedai di lokasi yang strategik. Pada saya adalah lebih baik membeli hartanah di lokasi yang strategik dari membeli saham. Krisis Ekonomi Asia Tenggara 1997 telah banyak memberi pengajaran kepada saya. Semenjak itu saya tidak main Pasaran Saham dan Saham Syarikat yang tersenarai di Bursa Saham Kuala Lumpur lagi. Saya tidak mahu tertipu dua kali.

Lebih ramai cari hartanah untuk pelaburan

KUALA LUMPUR 16 Julai - Kaji selidik aliran pengguna iProperty.com bagi separuh pertama tahun ini menunjukkan lebih ramai rakyat Malaysia mencari hartanah bagi pelaburan.
Kaji selidik dalam talian yang dikendalikan oleh laman web iProperty.com Malaysia, disertai 500 responden dan disasar untuk mendapatkan pemahaman mendalam tentang pembeli hartanah Asia, termasuk motivasi bagi membeli hartanah dan bajet.
Laman web hartanah itu dalam kenyataannya di sini hari ini berkata, daripada 500 responden, 47 peratus merancang untuk membeli rumah manakala 31 peratus adalah pelabur yang mahu mengembangkan portfolio kewangan mereka dengan hartanah.
Kaji selidik itu menunjukkan motivasi untuk melabur bagi pendapatan sewa turun pada 2010 manakala pelaburan hartanah bagi pertumbuhan modal meningkat.
Ia juga berkata, peningkatan kecenderungan kepada untung daripada jualan semula ini dikaitkan dengan kenaikan harga hartanah, ketika pasaran hartanah Malaysia terus bertambah baik.
Sejumlah 43 peratus responden berada dalam hartanah mewah bernilai antara RM400,000 hingga RM5 juta Ini mewakili kenaikan 16 peratus bagi permintaan hartanah mewah dengan segmen RM500,000 hingga RM1 juta sahaja meningkat sebanyak 10 peratus.
Kaji selidik itu menunjukkan bahawa harga hartanah yang meningkat, pulangan sewa yang lebih baik dan keuntungan jualan semula yang tinggi, menjadi antara alasan kepada peningkatan permintaan bagi hartanah mewah.
"Ketika keyakinan dalam pasaran hartanah meningkat, kami melihat lebih ramai pembeli dan pelabur rumah beralih kepada hartanah mewah sebagai satu kaedah untuk meraih keuntungan daripada peningkatan modal dan mengembangkan portfolio kewangan mereka," kata Pengurus Negara iProperty.com Malaysia, Ken Tsurumaru.
Bagi menampung permintaan yang semakin meningkat bagi hartanah mewah, beliau berkata Pameran Hartanah Koleksi Mewah Eksport iProperty.com yang akan datang akan menjadi pameran seumpamanya yang terbesar di Malaysia, mempamerkan perkembangan hartanah dari seluruh dunia.

Blasphemy Can lead Lead To Apostasy

2010-07-17T00:48:00.000+08:00

Blasphemy can lead to apostasy

Ikim Views

By DR WAN AZHAR WAN AHMAD
Senior Fellow/Director, Ikim

Though Islamic tradition offers no exact equivalent for the term blasphemy, Muslims without proper knowledge who criticise the religion may fall into infidelity or apostasy.

BLASPHEMY, derived from the Greek term meaning “speaking evil”, is contemptuous or irreverent words or speech about God or things regarded as sacred.

Its synonyms, among others, are abuse, desecration, execration, profanation, repudiation, derogation, denunciation, heresy, insult, impiety, sacrilege, scurrility and reviling.

“To blaspheme” is to speak about the Divine or those sacred things impiously, disrespectfully.
In Islam, words that pierce the Almighty God with insults (sabb), insinuate the Prophet Muhammad, or mock any part of the Revelation constitutes religious crimes.

Though Islamic tradition offers no exact equivalent, these situations are analogous or comparable to blasphemy. The Quranic term that comes fairly close to blasphemy is “words of infidelity” (kalimat al-kufr).
Theologically speaking, blasphemy may overlap with or lead to infidelity, i.e. deliberate rejection of God and Revelation.

To a lesser degree, but equally destructive, expressing religious opinions at variance with the standard established Islamic worldview or creed could easily be looked upon as blasphemous.

And this blasphemy may also be defined as any verbal expression that possibly gives grounds for apostasy (riddah).

Blasphemy can also be considered as equivalent to heresy (zandaqah). This pre-Islamic Persian term is employed in Islamic literature to describe the heretics (zindiqs) whose teaching becomes a threat to the state and religion. Originally zindiqs was used to refer to the followers of Mani (d. 277 AD) who deviated from the original teachings of Zorostrianism.

From the inception of Islam, the religion has been confronted with a lot of opposition. The Prophet Muhammad himself encountered vehement rejection from the Arab people and leaders of Mecca. They disputed, abused, rejected and ridiculed many Quranic teachings brought by him. They not only mocked his claim as the prophet of God but also accused him of many derogatory names and professions.

Based on the Noble Quran and Sunnah, the nature and conditions for blasphemy have been elaborated upon by scholars. They describe it as the expression of denigration, contempt or scorn for God, the Prophets, the Quran, the angels, or the traditional religious sciences based on Revelation.

The list goes to those remarks that offend the qualified and true religious scholars. Insults to the authoritative religious scholarship is tantamount to rejection of religious knowledge itself. It implies that the Revelation is untruthful, implicating the Prophet and ultimately Almighty God.

The aforementioned antagonism has been taking place in Islamic history since the time of the Prophet. It is still happening today and will continue to the future.

What is more unfortunate, is that it is done by Muslims themselves, the confused ones. They question the rationale and even validity of certain religious pronouncements, claiming injustices and discrimination, for example, against gender, as well as violation of human rights on the part of Islam.

The terms blasphemy and heresy are invoked here to remind and caution many modern educated Muslims who are inclined to follow the footsteps of those early blasphemers and zindiqs by criticising their religion without having proper knowledge.

It appears that those educated but ignorant Muslims become zindiqs or “free thinkers” making their external profession of Islam not sufficiently sincere due to improper guidance.

Therefore, Muslims must always be careful with their intentions, words and actions. They are supposed to be sensible enough to realise that whatever they do, it must be done in accordance with the true teachings of Islam.

All arguments must be constructed upon premises based on right knowledge. And true Muslims must always be ever willing to come back to the right path and correct themselves if what they are holding to is proven wrong.

Blasphemous Muslims must be aware that they may fall into infidelity or apostasy if they choose to remain obstinate after being told the truth.

German, Swiss media in frenzy over 'Imam Muda' show shown on Astro Oasis

2010-07-15T15:17:00.001+08:00

German, Swiss media in frenzy over 'Imam Muda' show

FRANKFURT (Bernama): The media in Germany and Switzerland have been widely reporting about a Malaysian reality television show called "Imam Muda" (Young Imam). While in many Western countries, a television talent show is organised to select a star, Malaysia is hiring the next "star imam" through a talent search show, as many German and Swiss dailies have been reporting.
Details of the "Imam Muda" show have been widely reported by a number of dailies - from the Tagesspiegel, Merkur Online through n-tv.de, Bild.de, Sueddeutsche Zeitung to the Swiss daily Tagesanzeiger - and have kept the readers engrossed, as comments from readers to the news report suggest.
The "Imam Muda" talent show reported about eight young men who appeared on Malaysian television at prime time, attired in suits and the traditional caps.
Switzerland's "Tagesanzeiger", for example, describes the candidates as "superstars" on Malaysian television and reports that they seem to have become heart throbs of many young girls.
Unlike in other reality shows, where participants usually sing or dance, the candidates in the "Imam Muda" show recite verses from the Quran, have the necessary training in washing dead bodies for Islamic burial, and pledge to protect young Malaysians from sex and drugs.
The talent show casts young Islamic clerics, the paper goes on.
The weekly talent show is headed by Hasan Mahmud, a former imam himself. He is creating a pool of exemplary young imams and using their help to combat the "social and moral decadence".
The candidates, aged between 18 and 27, are selected according to personality criteria and their knowledge of religion.
As in "American Idol" and other talent shows, candidates are phased out each week after they failed to qualify.
Many viewers and readers were surprised to know that for the duration of the show, the candidates are isolated and kept in the sleeping hall of a mosque - without any mobile phones, Internet, television and other modern gadgets - so that they "think for themselves" and do not have to rely on any outside help or prompting."
The winner of the contest can expect a pilgrimage to Mecca, financial assistance in pursuing studies at the Islamic university of Medina, and employment in a mosque," says a commentator in the German daily Tagesspiegel which is published from Berlin.
The German daily contends that all the casting participants can be sure of having the "admiration of young female admirers and potential mothers-in-law".
"For Muslims, the ideal sons-in-law are aspiring imams because they are educated and well-versed in Islam," the daily quoted Iselan Bazar of the cable channel Astro Oasis which airs the religious talent search.

The American Indepedence Day Commemoration

2010-07-12T20:56:00.047+08:00

A Jekyll and Hyde story

REFLECTING ON THE LAW By Prof Emeritus SHAD SALEEM FARUDI

shadsaleem@yahoo.co.uk

As the US commemorates its 234th Independence Day, it needs to re-examine its policies and purify its soul.
THIS Sunday, the United States will commemorate the 234th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence from Britain.
The historic document was not just an assertion of self-determination against colonial subjugation, it was also one of the world’s most stirring affirmations of the constitutional ideals of human rights, political participation and limited government.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
These beautiful, opening words of the Declaration have rightly been described as “the most potent and consequential words in American history”. Notwithstanding some sordid realities and shabby practices of the American body politic till the 1960s (like slavery and racial segregation), the ideals of the Declaration have animated American political theory over the last 234 years and inspired countless Constitutions around the world.
For much of its history, the United States has been regarded as a sentinel of constitutionalism, democracy and human rights. The US Constitution of 1787 distils one of the finest models of check and balance ever devised. The Bill of Rights, incorporated into the Constitution in 1791, provides a paradigm for entrenching fundamental rights against the naked power of the executive and the legislature.
It is a tribute to the greatness of the United States that for the last two centuries, its shores have beckoned millions of migrants from around the world. America’s bosom has cradled the dreams of disparate peoples from everywhere.
Its Statue of Liberty in the New York harbour symbolises America’s enduring love for liberty. Its free market system promotes economic opportunity and prosperity undreamed of elsewhere.
In the last century, the USA sacrificed billions of dollars and thousands of men to fight Nazism, fascism and communism. It supported de-colonisation and opposed apartheid. It condemned the Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of Suez.
It gave Marshall Aid to a Europe shattered by the ravages of World War II. It provided men, machines and money to many Third World countries.
It was the main architect of the UN Charter and many other gilt-edged provisions of international law. It contributes generously to many international organisations like the United Nations, World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Its universities sponsor foreign students from many lands.
Sadly, there is also a dark side to America. In some respects, US Governments since Truman have played Jekyll and Hyde around the world and exhibited multiple personalities. Evil has often mixed with good and heinous crimes with heroism. Liberty at home but a licence to impose hegemony and brutality on people abroad has been a consistent US policy of the last century.
The United States professes peace but is always at war with someone or the other. Its dominant military-industrial complex has transformed the creed “in God we trust” to “in arms we trust”.
From 1945 till now, it has dropped bombs and missiles on 29 countries, 24 of which are in the Third World. It used atomic weapons to decimate the innocent population of Hiroshima and Nagasaki even though the Japanese army was on the verge of collapse.
Washington maintains 180 or so military bases around the world. Its military budget in 2009 was US$661bil (RM2.1 trillion) or 43% of the world’s total! In the past it has conquered and colonised nations in Latin America and Asia.
George W. Bush invaded Iraq and Afghanistan and Barack Obama has not had the courage to undo that wrong. At the behest of Israel, the USA is threatening Iran with military strikes.
In the decades after World War II, Washington helped undermine many independence movements and propped up dictators in order to win the Cold War. To extend its imperial reach, it overthrew the rulers in Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Chile.
It intervened in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos causing the death of two million Asians and 58,000 Americans.
On July 4, 1988, its navy attacked an Iranian A300 Airbus in mid-air killing all 290 passengers on board. Under Bush, the CIA ran overseas torture chambers, resorted to kidnappings (renditions) of “terror suspects” abroad and transported 11,000 prisoners to camps for imprisonment without trial.
In the economic sphere, the United States preaches free trade but only to the extent that would assist its mega-corporations to take over indigenous economies.
In the legal sphere, the US Governments under Reagan and Bush walked away from treaty after treaty, whether on small arms, Kyoto Accord, land mines, Biological & Toxins Weapons Convention, Anti-Ballistic Missiles Agreement and the ICC.
Side by side with its fidelity to human rights at home, the US gives unconditional financial, diplomatic and military support to Israel’s 62-year-old genocidal, apartheid and military policies in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.
To many American leaders, no law or ideal is so worthy that it cannot be sacrificed to prop up Israel. Despite policies on non-proliferation, the US conspired with France to enable Israel to develop nuclear bombs surreptitiously.
Then, in an act of incredible appeasement, Washington connived with Tel Aviv to transfer nuclear capability to the racist regime in Pretoria in return for Pretoria allowing its soil for Israel to conduct its nuclear tests.
Washington hinders any international scrutiny of Israel’s atrocities. It has vetoed 45 or so UN Security Council Resolutions against Israel. In 2001, a near unanimous, 14-1 Resolution to station a UN Peacekeeping Force in Palestine was shot down by Washington.
To the United States, the Palestinians have no right to international protection, not if that hinders Israel. The suffering of the Palestinians is regretted but the Promised People have to be given their Promised Land.
On June 26 at the G8 Summit, Obama joined other leaders to pontificate about Israel’s decision “to relax certain elements of its blockade” of Gaza. But he said not a word about the illegality and inhumanity of Israel’s three-year genocidal strangulation of 1.5 million people.
Despite all this dissonance between lofty principles and flawed practices, we wish to send our felicitations to our American friends on their Independence Day.
At the same time we are entitled to wonder: Has America taken leave of its conscience in the Mid-East? How far are its policies inspired by “enlightened self-interest” and not deep-seated racial and religious prejudices?
One will do well to repeat Martin Luther King’s reminder that “we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny” and “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.
As it commemorates its independence, America needs to re-examine its policies and purify its soul. Its massive power combined with the lunacy of Israel can maintain the unjust status quo. But that will not bring peace because both Israel and America should know that the human spirit cannot be vanquished. There will always be people willing to die on their feet than live on their knees.
> Shad Saleem Faruqi is a graduate in Government from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut and carries fond memories of the USA despite his misgivings with US foreign policy.

Asia, The Leader In Global Economy

2010-07-12T20:48:00.000+08:00

DAEJEON: Dominique Strauss- Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), highlighted the role of Asia in the future in global economic policies, vowing to allow stronger voice of the region in the IMF, China's Xinhua news agency reported.
"Asia's time has come. No one can doubt that Asia's economic performance will continue to grow in importance," Strauss-Kahn said in his opening address to the Asia 21 high-level conference held in Daejeon.

The two-day conference, titled "Asia 21: Leading the Way Forward," kicked off with opening addresses by South Korean Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun and the IMF head, where the participants will hold discussions over Asia's global role and its new growth drivers.

The IMF officials are also planning to evaluate Asia's economic growth model and its implications of change for the global economy, while showcasing lessons of Asia's resilience during the crisis for other regions, Strauss-Kahn said.

"Drawing the lessons of Asia's many successes is an important objective for this conference," Strauss-Kahn said.

"In my view, the macroeconomic, financial and corporate sector reforms put in place over the last decade have played an important role in the region's resilience," added Strauss-Kah, attributing it to Asia's faster-than-expected recovery.

Recognising Asia's rising role in the global economy, the IMF head said it was in need of stronger voice and representation for Asia in the international financial community, including the IMF, mentioning the IMF's planned quota reform.

The IMF is planning to shift 5.0 percent of its quota to emerging countries from advanced countries as decided in the G20 Summit held in Pittsburgh last year.

The director also vowed that the IMF will strengthen its support for Asia, particularly with respect to improving its analysis of economic and financial risks, facilitating international policy collaboration, and strengthening further the global financial safety net.

The event, bringing together some 300 high-ranking policymakers and high-level IMF officials, is expected to bring about many agenda items that will be discussed in more details in the upcoming Seoul G20 Summit to be held in November. - Bernama

Radix Fried Chicken ke Indonesia, China

2010-07-12T10:30:00.000+08:00

Pendapat DRT: Inilah contoh syarikat Bumiputra yang konsepnya betul dan diueuskan dengan berjaya.

Radix Fried Chicken ke Indonesia, China

KANGAR 11 Julai - Syarikat HPA Industries Sdn. Bhd. menyasarkan pelaburan RM20 juta bagi pembukaan kira-kira 15 cawangan restoran makanan segera, Radix Fried Chicken (RFC) di luar negara.
Pengarah Urusannya, Ismail Ahmad berkata, tumpuan utama kini ialah membuka tiga cawangan RFC di Indonesia pada awal tahun depan.
"Pada masa ini kami sudahpun membuka ladang ternakan ayam, termasuk ladang makanan ternakan seperti jagung di negara berkenaan sebagai persediaan bagi pembukaan restoran RFC," katanya.
Beliau berkata demikian kepada para pemberita selepas merasmikan cawangan restoran RFC yang keenam di Seriab di sini baru-baru ini.
Menurut beliau, selain negara jiran itu, HPA kini dalam proses membuka sebuah lagi cawangan restoran RFC di Quangzhou, China tahun depan.
Dalam pada itu Ismail berkata, RFC yang baru beroperasi selama setahun enam bulan merancang memperluaskan rangkaian restoran makanan segeranya yang berkonsepkan ayam segar organik di Lembah Klang pada penghujung tahun ini.
Dua lokasi telah dikenal pasti ialah Bangi dan Shah Alam dan dalam masa yang sama 10 buah lagi cawangan akan dibuka di Kelantan, Pahang dan Johor.
Beliau berkata, pasaran di Lembah Klang akan diceburi sepenuhnya apabila RFC mendapat lesen francais yang akan membuka peluang perniagaan para usahawan dan orang ramai yang berminat.
"Ayam goreng yang dihasilkan RFC kini semakin mendapat sambutan daripada orang ramai berikutan kesedaran mereka tentang kebaikan makanan organik, segar dan baik untuk kesihatan namun yang utama ia halal," katanya.
Katanya, dalam tempoh masa yang singkat RFC membangun dengan pesat sehingga hujung tahun ini dengan 12 restoran akan dibuka.
Menurut Ismail, pihaknya merancang membuka 400 cawangan RFC di seluruh negara dalam tempoh 10 tahun termasuk Sabah dan Sarawak melalui perniagaan francais.
"Setiap satu outlet RFC yang dibuka menelan kos sekitar RM1 juta sehingga RM1.5 juta manakala semua bahan mentah diselia rapi menggunakan produk keluaran daripada HPA," ujarnya.

DPM: Selangor heading for water crisis

2010-07-12T10:20:00.000+08:00

Pendapat DRT: Kerajaan Negeri Selangor perlu memikirkan kesejahteraan Rakyat Selangor mengatasi percaturan politik semasa mereka.

By FLORENCE A. SAMY

KUALA LUMPUR: Selangor and the federal capital will face a serious water crisis in two years if water resources are not managed properly by the state government, said Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

And he told the people not to blame the Federal Government if this happens, saying that its efforts to ensure long-term supply were being stumped by the state government.
Muhyiddin said the Selangor Government’s move to provide free water and not increase tariff was taking a toll because it had to absorb the cost.
“They thought they were doing something popular with their election promise. They gave free water and promised that water prices would not go up.
“They are absorbing RM13mil a month and are facing big deficits.
“However, they say they cannot afford to pay (the concessionaires) if the cost keeps going up. If they don’t pay, the water processing companies will suffer losses as they too are facing problems as the cost of managing and processing water is very high,” he said when opening the Ampang Umno delegates meeting here yesterday.
Muhyiddin said people in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur would suffer a water crisis in two years unless the state government solves the water problem.
He said the Federal Government was facing stumbling blocks with the RM9bil Pahang-Selangor raw water transfer project because of the Selangor Government.
The Federal Government, he said, had held several discussions with the Selangor Government on the issue, including on the acquisition of land to build the Langat 2 water treatment plant for the project, which still had not been agreed upon by the state government.
“The state government has instructed its land offices and other departments not to cooperate with the Federal Government.
“We want to help out although land and water issues are under the state government. We do not want people to blame us,” he said, adding that Selangor could face bankruptcy if the deficits grew.
Muhyiddin said internal politicking in PKR and current troubles with the Selangor state government and Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim were not giving people confidence in their capabilities.

Israeli Prime Minister must take necessary risks for Peace, says US President

2010-07-08T16:16:00.000+08:00

DRT'S Comments: The US Government must be seen to be a neutral party in the Israeli - Palestinian Conflict in order to be an effective peace maker to achieve real peace. Only by being neutral can the American Government nudges the belligerent Israeli regime whic depended on American support anyway, to make the necessary concessions needed to result in a lasting peace in West Asia.

Israeli prime minister taking risks for peace, says US president at first meeting since March

Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu today sought to paper over the deep political rift between the US and Israel and publicly avoided any mention of the main areas of friction, including the continued expansion of Jewish settlements.

In stark contrast to their last meeting, in March, when Obama humiliated Netanyahu by refusing to hold a press conference with him and leaving the Israeli prime minister to eat dinner alone at the White House, the president described their latest discussions as excellent. Seated alongside Netanyahu in the Oval Office, Obama said he believed the Israeli prime minister was a man of peace.

"I think he's willing to take risks for peace," said Obama.

Netanyahu added: "We're committed to that peace. I'm committed to that peace. And this peace will better the lives of Israelis, Palestinians, and certainly would change our region.

"Israelis are prepared to do a lot to get that peace in place but they want to make sure that after all the steps we take that what we get is a secure peace," he said. "It is high time to begin direct talks [with the Palestinians]."

Obama praised Israel for easing the blockade on Gaza following the international outcry over its deadly raid on a flotilla of aid ships in which eight Turkish activists were killed. The US president said he recognised the Jewish state's "unique security requirements".

Despite the dramatic change in public tone, there was little sign of significant movement on the underlying issues that led the Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, to say last month there had been a "tectonic shift" in relations.

The two leaders avoided speaking publicly about the issues that have led some in his administration to question whether the Israeli government is as serious about negotiations as it says.

Obama said nothing about the continued construction of Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem which had prompted a bitter showdown in March after the Israeli authorities announced the building of 1,600 more homes exclusively for Jews while the US vice-president, Joe Biden, was visiting Jerusalem. Washington viewed that as a sign of contempt and evidence of Israeli indifference to the political impact of the construction on peace prospects.

Neither was there any mention of an extension to the partial freeze on building in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which is due to expire in September.

Some members of Netanyahu's coalition cabinet, such as Benny Begin, son of the former hardline prime minister Menachem Begin, have said construction will resume at full force because there is little prospect of a peace agreement.

"The prime minister said a few times that the status of settlements would be determined only in a final-status peace agreement with our neighbours," he told Israel Radio. "Such agreement is not imminent at all. In the meantime, we have to ensure that our settlements are developed."

Obama denied there had been any rift with Israel or its prime minister.

"I trusted prime minister Netanyahu since I met him before I was elected president. He is dealing with a very complex situation in a very tough neighbourhood," he said.

The president noted that the two sides have held five tentative meetings, known as proximity talks, under the guidance of the US Middle East envoy, George Mitchell. But the Palestinians continue to suspect that Netanyahu is paying lip service to the establishment of their own state in order to pacify the Americans.

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, told Jordanian journalists that initial talks with Israel had not made any progress.

Earlier this week an Arabic-language newspaper in London reported that Abbas had submitted written proposals to Mitchell on core issues such as the borders of a Palestinian state and Jerusalem. According to the report, the Palestinians are prepared to consider a land swap that would allow Israel to retain the major Jewish settlements. But, according to the proposal, the Palestinians would gain control of East Jerusalem with the exception of the religiously significant Jewish quarter of the Old City and the Wailing Wall.

The reality of the settlements was highlighted by a new report by the leading Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, today, which said that Jewish settlements now control nearly half of all land in the occupied West Bank.

The report said that the settlements take over land far beyond their nominal boundaries, ostensibly for security, much of it privately owned by Palestinians in breach of an Israeli supreme court ruling. B'Tselem calculated that more than 42% of the West Bank is under the control of the 300,000 Israeli settlers who live there. Settler organisations say the settlements control less than 10%.

Karpal Minta Pas Hormati DAP

2010-07-05T21:50:00.000+08:00

Pendapat DRT: Saya hanya teringat kepada ahli/penyokong Pas yang selalu berteriak TAKBIR Allahu Akhbar bila mendengar ucapan kempen politik di PRK Permatang Pauh, Bukit Gantang oleh Karpal Singh dan anaknya Gobind Singh Deo. Mereka keduanya ini adalah 'pointman' DAP dalam menentang sekuat-kuatnya hasrat Pas menubuhkan Kerajaan Islam. Penyokong-penyokong Pas ini tidak fahamkah kenyataan demi kenyataan yang dikeluarkan oleh kedua anak beranak ini yang menentang Penubuhan Kerajaan Islam yang tidak pernah di sangkal oleh Lim Kit Siang , Penasihat DAP dan Lim Guan Eng Setia Agong DAP?? Kesemua pemimpin DAP ini sungguh baik dan handal lakonan mereka. Boleh menang Anugerah Pelakon Terbaik Academy Filem Amerika Syarikat!!!!

Yang saya kasihan ialah saudara-saudara saya ahli Pas yang mengundi DAP di kawasan-kawasan mana Pas tidak bertanding.

Satu undi untuk DAP ialah satu undi untuk mengagalkan Penubuhan Kerajaan Islam yang menjadi visi dan misi perjuangan Pas selama ini.

Karpal minta Pas hormati DAP

Oleh IRMAN HASHIM

KUALA TERENGGANU 4 Julai – Pas perlu menghormati DAP berhubung pendirian parti itu yang menolak konsep negara Islam.

Pengerusi DAP, Karpal Singh menegaskan, Pas harus terima apa yang telah dinyatakannya beberapa kali sebelum ini berhubung isu tersebut.

‘‘Ini bukan isu sama ada Pas perlu berkompromi dengan perkara ini atau tidak, tetapi ia perlu diterima oleh Pas,” katanya kepada pemberita di sini hari ini.

Beliau diminta mengulas isu negara Islam yang kembali tercetus ekoran kenyataannya bahawa DAP tidak dapat menerima konsep negara Islam yang dibawa oleh Pas jika berjaya memerintah kelak.

Dalam pada itu katanya, Pas perlu menerima hakikat bahawa Malaysia merupakan sebuah negara sekular dan bukan negara Islam seperti diperuntukkan dalam Perlembagaan.

Bagaimanapun kata Karpal, walaupun kedua-dua parti itu berbeza pandangan dalam isu tersebut, hubungan mereka masih baik.

‘‘Kami berbeza dasar tetapi masih bersama atas isu-isu lebih penting seperti tanpa menyentuh isu-isu melibatkan dasar,” katanya.

Kenyataan Karpal yang menyifatkan konsep itu sebagai salah, disanggah oleh Mursyidul Am Pas, Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat yang kemudiannya mencabar beliau membuktikannya.

Namun di sebalik isu yang tercetus semula itu, Karpal berkata, hubungan antara DAP dengan Pas yang bersatu di bawah pakatan pembangkang sehingga kini masih baik walaupun mempunyai pendirian berbeza.

Sementara itu, beliau mencabar Peguam Negara, Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail pergi ke Britain dan membawa pulang Raja Petra Kamaruddin ke negara ini untuk dibawa ke muka pengadilan.

Karpal mempersoalkan, mengapa Peguam Negara tidak berani berbuat demikian dengan mengambil tindakan mengekstradisi pengendali laman web Malaysia Today tersebut.

‘‘Jika kita tidak ada perjanjian ekstradisi dengan Britain, satu perjanjian dua hala boleh dibuat untuk mengekstradisikan Raja Petra,” katanya.

Beliau berkata demikian ketika diminta mengulas gambar pertemuan pemimpin parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), Datuk Zaid Ibrahim bersama Raja Petra di United Kingdom yang disiarkan baru-baru ini.

Karpal berkata, tindakan Zaid bertemu dengan Raja Petra tidak menjadi satu kesalahan di sisi undang-undang.

‘‘Jika saya sendiri ke Britain dan ingin berjumpa dengan Raja Petra tidak akan ada halangan.
Terpulang kepada Zaid untuk membantu siasatan terhadap Raja Petra,” ujarnya.

New Homes For Shelter Folks

2010-07-05T20:07:00.002+08:00

Pendapat DRT: Tindakan yang baik dan cekaoleh Dato Seri Shahrizat and Dato Meme Zainal Rashid, Ketua Pengarah Jabatan Kebajikan. Ini yang rakyat suka dan mahu. Banyakkan tindakan dan kurangkan cakap yang retorik.

KUALA LUMPUR: Most of the Rumah Titian Kasih Puteri (RTK) residents have been relocated over the weekend to three care centres run by the government.

As of yesterday, all senior citizens and the disabled of the all-women shelter in Taman Tasik Titiwangsa were sent either to Rumah Ihsan in Kuala Kubu Baru, Rumah Seri Kenanga in Seremban and Taman Sinar Harapan, also in Kuala Kubu Baru.

Only seven single mothers and children are still at RTK Puteri.

Bedridden elderly people were sent to Rumah Ihsan and the mobile ones to Rumah Seri Kenanga. The disabled were sent to Taman Sinar Harapan.
The effort to relocate the residents came on Friday when Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil revealed that the shelter had been operating without a licence for 12 years.

She said all the residents would be placed in the different institutions under the Welfare Department, according to their needs.

Shahrizat had described the shelter' s condition as "worrying" after a tour of the home.

In a statement yesterday, Welfare Department director-general Datuk Meme Zainal Rashid said the home was being investigated.

DPM Slams Petty Malays for confusing The Issues

2010-07-05T12:09:00.001+08:00

It is high time to ponder the future. Whether it is better with Barisan Nasional which has a clear vision and mission giving a cohesive front. Or with the confused and divided Pakatan Rakyat which has seen MPs leaving the sinking ship . Anwar faces an uncertain future in view of his sodomy case. Also the fact that the MB of Selangor, Tan Sri Khalid's position looks so precarious when Azmin was made PKR Selangor Liaison Chief a few weeks ago which will end up making Selangor PKR having two equally strong generals. Not a particularly good situation politically for PR going into the next General Elections.

DPM slams petty Malays for confusing issues

Submitted by Francis Nantha on Sunday, July 4th, 2010

Bernama

Sunday, July 4th, 2010 22:00:00

BATU PAHAT: Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today lashed out at a small section of the Malays who are bent on questioning government policies, saying such actions could pose a threat to the struggles of Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN).
He said that these groups of Malays had been questioning the position of the Malay Rulers, the Malay language as the national language and the efforts to enhance the economic well-being of the Malays.
"The Malays should be united under one umbrella to ensure the agenda to develop them are achieved. We will never be able to achieve it if we are disunited," he said when opening the Parit Sulong Umno division meeting here today.
Muhyiddin said these groups of Malays supported the opposition particularly the DAP. "The DAP labelled me as 'ultra Malay' for fighting for the interest of the Malays when in fact it is (DAP parliamentary leader) Lim Kit Siang who is more racist."
The Umno deputy president said that in this challenging situation, the Malays especially Umno should unite and double their effort not only to strengthen the party but also in implementing the transformation plan so that Umno would continue to be accepted by the people.
He also called for continuous efforts to improve the party, saying the transformation plan to face the coming 13th general election had not been moving as speedy as it should be at the divisional level.
He said party members should carry out the transformation process to make the party relevant to the Malays and the people in general.
Earlier, Muhyiddin described the actions of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim lately as an act of betrayal, saying they had caused split among the Malays.
He said the Malays should realise the repercussions of Anwar's actions. "The people should realise that Anwar is causing split among the Malays." he told reporters after opening the Batu Pahat Umno meeting today.
He said that the Washington Post's report that Anwar had gone to the United States to tell his American friends that he regretted using the term such as "Zionist aggression", showed that the opposition leader were afraid of hurting their feelings.
"He has many friends there and this too should be looked into and gauged by the people," he said.
Asked to comment on the meeting between PKR leader Datuk Zaid Ibrahim and blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin in London recently, Muhyiddin said it showed that Zaid had good relations with the fugitive "Malaysia Today" editor.
Muhyiddin also reminded Umno members that they had two years to implement changes in their respective areas before the coming election.
In LAHAD DATU, Umno supreme council member Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said Anwar could not accept the fact that the BN was rightfully elected by the people.
He said that even now, Anwar continued to disparage the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in the international arena.
"Datuk Seri Najib is our prime minister. Not just Barisan Nasional members, everyone, whether the person in Anwar, Lim Kit Siang or (Datuk Seri) Abdul Hadi Awang, should show respect to the prime minister," he said.
"Anwar is a hypocrite who should be rejected by the people," Mustapa said when opening the Silam Umno meeting.
Gerakan president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon said Anwar was inconsistent with his stand. "Well, is that unusual for him to 'flip-flop'? The people are beginning to open their eyes and see him for who he really is," he told reporters after opening the 1Family 1Malaysia programme in Kuala Lumpur.DPM

Gaza Conference In KL On Sunday 11 July 2010 @ PWTC

2010-07-04T20:23:00.000+08:00

Lets all attend this International Conference and show and give our support for the Suppressed Palestinians in their search for a sovereign country of their own. May Allah give His blessings and protection to the Palestinians in their struggle for independence from the suppressive Israeli regime.

KUALA LUMPUR: An international conference, entitled ''Breaking the Siege: In the Spirit of Rachel Corrie and Mavi Marmara'', will be held at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) on July 11.
The conference, organised by Perdana Global Peace Organisation (PGPO), among others will discuss measures and efforts to be undertaken to challenge the illegal seige in Gaza.

In a statement released here today, PGPO said speakers at the conference included Turkish humanitarian relief organisation Insani Yardim Yakfi head Yildrim Bulent, former United Nations assistant secretary-general Denis J. Halliday and MV Rachel Corrie team head Derek Graham.

PGPO chairman and former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will deliver the keynote address. Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin will deliver the closing address.

The one-day conference will be held at Dewan Tun Razak 1 at 9am. Entrance is free. The public are advised to come early as seats are limited.

For inquiries, call 03-88858965 (Maizatul), 03-88858960 (Noorinsun), 019-3843913 (Dr Zulaiha Ismail) or 019-9100090 (Shamsul). - Bernama

Toh Puan Nor Ashikin An Examplary Woman

2010-07-04T04:12:00.001+08:00

Allahyarhamah begitu setia membantu suaminya Tun Dr Ismail bekas Timbalan Perdana Malaysia. Allahyarhamah kerap pergi menunaikan umrah selama sebulan penuh apabila tibanya Bulan Ramadhan setiap tahun. Saya pernah bersua dengan Allayarhamah di Hotel Zahrah Mekkah sekitar tahun 90an semasa bulan Ramadhan. Semoga Allah memasukkan roh Allahyarhamah ke dalam golongan mereka yang dikasihi dan disayangi Allah. Amin Ya Rabbul A'lamin.

Toh Puan Norashikin an examplary woman

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak described Toh Puan Norashikin Mohd Seth, widow of former deputy prime minister Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman as an examplary woman. "Toh Puan Norashikin strongly supported her husband Tun Dr Ismail. She was a polite person and was involved in many charitable activities," he told reporters after the burial ceremony at Warriors'' Mausoleum, Masjid Negara here today.

Najib said Toh Puan Norashikin's death was a big loss to the generation who contributed to the country's independence and development.

Those present include former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Sidek Hassan.
Toh Puan Norashikin, 80, died of old age in Damansara Specialist Hospital at noon yesterday.
She was the second woman to be buried at Warriors'' Mausoleum after former welfare minister Tun Dr Fatimah Hashim.
Gua Musang Member of Parliament Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah said Toh Puan Norashikin was a loyal wife and supported Tun Dr Ismail after the May 13 racial riots in 1969.

"She urged Tun Dr Ismail to accept the post of deputy prime minister during the emergency and was always supportive in the background."

Razaliegh said Toh Puan Norashikin was also concerned with the welfare of police personnel when Tun Dr Ismail was the home minister.
Her brother former armed forces chief Tan Sri Ghazali Seth said she was an active and spiritually strong person.

"She goes to perform the umrah in Mekah annually and visit her grandchildren in Australia regularly."

Ghazali said Toh Puan Norashikin was undergoing treatment for various ailments at Damansara Specialist Hospital. - Bernama

Khairy and Perkasa

2010-07-02T02:01:00.000+08:00

My Comments: I do not see how Khairy can benefit from continuing his feud with Perkasa. Perkasa is not and should not be seen as an 'enemy' by Khairy. He has nothing to gain from it and much to lose in term of his credentials as a Malay leader. A sleeping tiger is much better not to be disturbed.

By aazman

Created Thursday, July 1st

Bernama [1]

Thursday, July 1st, 2010 23:41:00

KUALA LUMPUR: Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin today asked the Home Ministry to investigate 'Suara Perkasa' over its front-page article which called for Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong to be
arrested under the Internal Security Act.
"I'm not doing this because I want to defend Ka Siong but this article is an incitement and is wrong, and should be investigated," he told reporters at the parliament lobby today.
The feud between Pertubuhan Perkasa Malaysia (Perkasa) president Datuk Ibrahim Ali and Wee began when Ibrahim said that the MCA Youth chief had questioned the social contract and did not respect the Federal Constitution pertaining to the issue of distribution of Public Service Department scholarships.
Khairy said fighting for Malay interests was not an issue but one should also not forget the interests of the other races.
"For me, BN and Umno must be seen to be inclusive. It's okay for Perkasa to fight for the Malays but I don't agree with the way it's done," he said.
Wee, who wondered why the scholarship issue was still raised when he had already given his explanation, said he would see whether he could take legal action against Suara Perkasa over the article.

How Thrifty Are We Malaysians???

2010-06-28T22:19:00.003+08:00

How thrifty are Malaysians?????? The Chinese are generally very thrifty. They are careful about two things in their lives. Firstly with regards to their money and secondly they care about their children education. Among the Chinese the Hokkiens are more thrifty than the Cantonese. Thats why per capita there are more billionaires and millionaires among the Hokkiens compared to the Cantonese. Lim Goh Tong, Robert Kuok, Yeoh Tiong Lay, Vincent Tan, Khoo Kay Peng, Lee Kim Yew, Tee Hock Seng etc etc are all Hokkiens. The notable Cantonese tycoons are Dick Chan and Chan Ah Chye.

Among the Indians they do practices thriftiness. Its no accident that Ananda Krishnan is a Ceylonese Tamil. From this Ceylonese Tamil group comes many of the well known professionals in Malaysia. Lawyers, doctors , engineers and what not. They also at one time dominated the Civil Services as Officers and Chief Clerks (CCs) before the Malays came in, in large numbers in the 70s and 80s..

Among the Malays, those with Mamak blood are known to be thrifty (my wife is one of them. During the 1997 Economic Meltdown she saved me and the family from going under through her shrewd investments). Kelantanese (the Nik Ahmad Kamil clans) , Minangkabaus (Melewar Group, Antah Group at one time) and Kedahans (Tun Daim, Syed Mokhtar AlBuhary to name a few) know the value of money and are careful about their wealth. They are good and shrewd businessmen and women. Tun Daim (a Mamak) owns Banks in West Africa and Eastern Europe.

Perakians are not a thrifty lot especially with their sayings "Biar pape asal bergaye" or roughly be well groomed with style even if it makes us poor. This is not the norm even though the majority practice it. But Raja Azurin of the Perak Royal Family is in the Millionaire group. She is an exception to the general rule.

The bottom line is that we all need to be thrifty and avoid extravagant life styles in order to really enjoy our life and not be hit by poverty through our carelessness and wastefulness.. Wallahu A'lam.

Thriftiness: Make Money By Saving Money

Let's face it, we're a nation of overspenders. Advertisements seduce us into buying stuff that isn't really worthwhile, and credit cards enable us to delay the financial consequences of overspending. On a more personal level, people often buy material goods because they hope to impress others with a status symbol. In reality, it is your personal qualities that will impress or turn away other people. The more money you allow to fly out of your wallet, the more time you'll need to spend working to replace that money.

Getting Motivated: Use Less, Spend Less

Make your money work towards helping you do something you really love doing! Think about it this way: A dollar saved is two dollars earned. For most people, about 50% of spendable income is sucked away by various taxes, so saving a buck is twice as useful as earning one.

To reduce overspending, just do these four simple things:

Thriftiness: Make Money By Saving Money

Time to complete:	Varies
Money you'll spend:	$0
What you'll get:	Varies
Step-by-step instructions: Think about what is really important to you, what you've enjoyed most in your life. To what extent was spending money necessary for your enjoyment? Were there less expensive ways of getting enjoyment out of life? Whenever you buy something, think twice. Just before you place the order, think about the amount of time and work you need to exchange in order to acquire the purchase. Was it worth it? Save your receipts. At the end of each month, look at your spending. Did you enjoy your purchases as much as you thought you would? You'll probably be surprised at how expensive some of your spending patterns are. What were the most costly expenses, and how can you reduce them? Think about how you want your situation to improve. Try to imagine what it is you really, really want. Do you need to save more money in order to achieve it? Do you want to... Take more time off work, to enjoy your life more? Buy something you haven't been able to afford, until now? Apply your savings towards accomplishing your greatest dream? Buy an improved education for yourself or your children? Move to a better neighborhood? Get a job doing what you enjoy most? Start your own business enterprise? Save for retirement or a rainy day? Spend it on a person or worthy cause that you love? For some more ideas on thrifty living, visit the Dollar Stretcher's Voluntary Simplicty articles.
Further Reading: The Dollar Stretcher has a large number of articles about all sorts of money-related topics, many of them contributed by the over 100,000 readers of its newsletter. Cheapskate Monthly also has many excellent thrift tips, slanted mainly to homemakers. Consumer Magazines to help you get the most for your dollar, free trials available. Mary Hunt's the Complete Cheapskate, a top-rated book about saving money and getting out of debt, available at Amazon.com. The Complete Tightwad Gazette, a top-rated book about thrifty living, available at Amazon.com.

World Halal Research Summit 2010 to look at Services

2010-06-19T17:21:00.000+08:00

June 18, 2010 21:10 PM

World Halal Research Summit 2010 To Also Look At Services

HDC chief executive Datuk Seri Jamil Bidin with World Halal Research Summit programme book. Pic:Azhar Pidek

KUALA LUMPUR, June 18 (Bernama) -- The World Halal Research Summit 2010 next week is expected to attract up to 1,000 participants as researchers unveil innovations and industry players seek the latest technology while venture capitalists look out for possible investment.

Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC) chief executive Datuk Seri Jamil Bidin said today the event, held from June 23 to 25 in conjunction with Halal Week, would not only focus on technologies for products but would also look into services such as healthcare, logistics and banking.
"Halal must be from end-to-end. It covers many sectors and is a value proposition that can be applied to many things," he told reporters at a briefing on the summit here.

The event is expected to be opened by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak simultaneously with two other events, namely the World Halal Forum organised by Kaseh Dia Sdn Bhd and the Malaysia International Halal Showcase (MIHAS) organised by Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade).

The Prime Minister's wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, is expected to close the summit on June 25.

Among the speakers at the summit are Halal Products Research Institute director Profesor Dr Yaacob Che Man who will give an update on halal product authentication, and Pure Circle managing director Datuk Arshad Sehan who will speak on "Stevia: The Next Generation of Sweeteners".

Others include Pajiens Antonius Franciscus Maria of Netherland who will talk on "Supercritical Fluid Application in Halal Industry" and Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd senior manager for strategy and initiatives, Ellynita Hazlina Lamin, whose focus is on "Sourcing and Securing Funding for Entrepreneurs".

Jamil said the summit would also have its gala night on the June 23 whereby HDC would be giving the Halal Science Award to acknowledge the individual who has contributed significantly to the halal industry.

It would also be giving away a Halal Champion Award to four companies that have shown success in the halal business, namely in the sectors of food, cosmetics and personal care, livestocks and halal ingredients, he said.

He added that these firms which have received support previously are expected to contribute by creating vendor firms in order to have a multiplier effect in the industry.

The summit will also witness two memorandum of understanding (MoU) signing ceremony between HDC and Taylor's College as well as Iran.

Jamil said although the corporation has collaborated with many government universities before, this was the first time it was addressing research and development at the tertiary level with a private college.

On the deal with the Iranian government, he said HDC could assist Iranian firms that are big in pharmaceuticals with the packaging and marketing, especially in exporting to the western countries.

The summit will also see the launch of HDC's collaboration with DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd on their I-Phone project.

-- BERNAMA

The The May 31st Incident: Israeli Government's macho attitude is actually making the country weaker

2010-06-19T04:56:00.001+08:00

My comments: From the way the Economist covered the May 31st Incident it can clearly be seen that even though the newspaper mentioned that Israel is becoming lonely in the World's eyes but it never once called the killings of the 6 Turkish Peace Activists as the May 31st Incident. Why? To me the reason is that the Western media does not want to give a label to the Israeli brutality that occurred on May 31. Without a label the World would easily forgets the tragic Incident. We must prevent this from happening.

For comparison the destruction of the World Trade Centre on September 11 was always highlighted by the Western Media(including the Economist) and full coverage is given on each of its anniversary every year after the Incident.

So we, the International Community who loves and a lasting peace in West Asia should always remember this May 31 Incident where 6 innocent Turkish activists were brutally murdered during the attack on the Aids For Gaza Flotilla by the Israeli Commandos. Each year we should commemorates and remembers its Anniversary.

By doing this we will accelerate the pressures on the Israeli right wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu to opt for a peaceful solution and to the creation of an independent Palestine State with full Sovereignty with its capital at Jerusalem. Thank you.

Israel's siege mentality

The government’s macho attitude is actually making Israel weaker

3rd June 2010

THE lethal mishandling of Israel’s attack on a ship carrying humanitarian supplies that was trying to break the blockade of Gaza was bound to provoke outrage—and rightly so. The circumstances of the raid are murky and may well remain that way despite an inquiry (see article). But the impression received yet again by the watching world is that Israel resorts to violence too readily. More worryingly for Israel, the episode is accelerating a slide towards its own isolation.

Once admired as a plucky David facing down an array of Arab Goliaths, Israel is now seen as the clumsy bully on the block.

Israel’s desire to stop the flotilla reaching Gaza was understandable, given its determination to maintain the blockade. The Israelis also had a responsibility to conduct the operation safely.The Aids For Gaza campaigners knew that either way they would win. If they had got through, it would have been a triumphant breaching of the blockade. If forcibly stopped, with their cargo of medical equipment and humanitarian aid, they would be portrayed as victims—even if some, as the Israelis contend, brought clubs, knives and poles. As it was, disastrous planning by Israel’s soldiers led to a needless loss of life.

For anyone who cares about Israel, this tragedy should be the starting point for deeper questions—about the blockade, about the Jewish state’s increasing loneliness and the route to peace. A policy of trying to imprison the Palestinians has left their jailer strangely besieged.

Losing friends, strengthening Hamas

The blockade of Gaza is cruel and has failed. The Gazans have suffered sorely but have not been starved into submission. Hamas has not been throttled and overthrown, as Israeli governments (and many others) have wished. Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier taken hostage, has not been freed. Weapons and missiles can still be smuggled in through tunnels from Egypt.

Just as bad, from Israel’s point of view, it helps feed antipathy towards Israel, not just in the Arab and Muslim worlds, but in Europe too. Israel once had warm relations with a ring of non-Arab countries in the vicinity, including Iran and Turkey. The deterioration of Israel’s relations with Turkey, whose citizens were among the nine dead, is depriving Israel of a rare Muslim ally and mediator. It is startling how, in its bungled effort to isolate Gaza, democratic Israel has come off worse than Hamas, which used to send suicide-bombers into restaurants.

Most telling of all are the stirrings of disquiet in America, Israel’s most steadfast ally. Americans are still vastly more sympathetic to the Israelis than to the Palestinians. But a growing number, especially Democrats, including many liberal Jews, are getting queasier about what they see as America’s too robotic support for Israel, especially when its government is as hawkish as Binyamin Netanyahu’s. A gap in sympathy for Israel has widened between Democrats and Republicans. Conservatives still tend to back Israel through hell and the high seas. Barack Obama is more conscious that the Palestinians’ failure to get a state is helping to spread anti-American poison across the Muslim world, making it harder for him to deal with Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. His generals have strenuously made that point. None other than the head of Israel’s Mossad, its foreign intelligence service, declared this week that America has begun to see Israel more as a burden than an asset.

That has led to the charge by hawkish American Republicans, as well as many Israelis, that Mr Obama is bent on betraying Israel. In fact, he is motivated by a harder-nosed appreciation of the pros and cons of America’s cosiness with Israel, and is thus all the keener to prod the Jewish state towards giving the Palestinians a fair deal. He has condemned the building of Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory more bluntly than his predecessors did, because he rightly thinks they make it harder to negotiate a peace deal. Mr Obama’s greater sternness towards Israel is for the general good—including Israel’s.

Harmony is not just a dream

Israel is caught in a vicious circle. The more its hawks think the outside world will always hate it, the more it tends to shoot opponents first and ask questions later, and the more it finds that the world is indeed full of enemies. Though Mr Netanyahu has reluctantly agreed to freeze settlement-building and is negotiating indirectly with Palestinians, he does not give the impression of being willing to give ground in the interests of peace.

Yet the prospect of a deal between Palestinians and Israelis still beckons. The contours of a two-state solution remain crystal-clear: an adjusted border, with Israel keeping some of the biggest settlements while Palestine gets equal swaps of land; Jerusalem shared as a capital, with special provisions for the holy places; and an admission by Palestinians that they cannot return to their old homes in what became Israel in 1948, with some theoretical right of return acknowledged by Israel and a small number of refugees let back without threatening the demographic preponderance of Jewish Israelis.

And what about Hamas, if Israel is to lift the siege of Gaza? How should Israel handle an authoritarian movement that refuses to recognise it and has in the past readily used terror? One answer is to ask the UN to oversee the flow of goods and people going in and out of Gaza. That is hardly a cure-all, but Hamas would become the world’s problem neighbour, not just Israel’s. The Arab world must do more, pressing Hamas to disavow violence, publicly pledge not to resume the firing of rockets at Israeli civilians and revoke its anti-Semitic charter. The West, led by Mr Obama, should call for Hamas to be drawn into negotiations, both with its rival Palestinians on the West Bank as well as with Israel, even if it does not immediately recognise the Jewish state. It is still the party the Palestinians elected in 2006 to represent all of them. None of this will be easy. But the present stalemate is bloodily leading nowhere.

Israel is a regional hub of science, business and culture. Despite its harsh treatment of Palestinians in the land it occupies, it remains a vibrant democracy. But Israeli's loneliness, partly self-inflicted, is making it a worse place, not just for the Palestinians but also for its own people. If only it can replenish its stock of idealism and common sense before it is too late.

Tennis Icon Andre Agassi on Fathers and Sons

2010-06-13T01:53:00.000+08:00

A conversation with the retired tennis star Andre Agassi -- he opens up about sports, his autobiography, Open and being a father.

By CHRISTOPHER KEIL

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Andre Agassi. Photo: Dan Macmedan/Contour by Getty Images

You can stop right now. You have everything you need: money, a wife, and freedom. It doesn’t get any better

WT: The world knows you as a tennis player. A few months ago, you released your autobiography, Open, and indeed it is . . .
Andre Agassi: As a tennis pro I always led a very public life, and much of what was publicised about me was simply wrong, both the good and the bad. I knew my way around the tennis court, but not the world outside. My life consisted of contradictions that I could never explain.
Do you understand Andre Agassi now?
I understand him differently every day and, like anybody else, I have to work for my inner peace every day.
Your father was known as a taskmaster. Why did you not deal more harshly with him in your book?
My father is unbelievably loyal. I wished he had loved me less. He was always big-hearted. He was just looking for the shortest way to the American dream . . .
. . . and that lay in your success.
My father had a plan, and he was so disciplined you wouldn’t believe it. I don’t know how he did it – two jobs, four children, standing on the tennis court with us hour after hour, all this crazy discipline. He had many positive sides.
But the negatives dominated you for two decades.

I asked him once: “Daddy, how did you deal with the things people said about you, about how you handle things, with yourself, with us?” He said: “I don’t give a damn what others say about me. If I had to start over, I would do everything exactly the same. With one exception: I wouldn’t let you play tennis again, but would get you into golf or baseball. Both sports you could have played longer and so made more money.”

Nice.
You have to understand him. Dad grew up as an Armenian Christian in Muslim Iran. He had to fight a daily fight against the world. He had a mother who treated him badly, and even forced him to wear girl’s clothes to school. He learned very young not to trust anybody. Then when he came to the US he didn’t speak a word of English, but he somehow slogged his way through school. This man never had a choice in his life; he wanted his children to have all the chances he didn’t have. The irony was that he himself did not let us have a choice. He was so poor that success meant nothing to him if he couldn’t earn any money with it. So having a chance meant just one thing: money.
You have two kids. How is your father as a grandfather?
He is OK. Anyway, he always speaks his mind.
What does he say?
My son was playing tennis with him once and hit a ball straight to his body. My father looked at him and said: “If you do that once again I’ll step on your rear end so hard you won’t be able to go to the toilet for two weeks.”
And your son came crying into the house?
Not a single tear, he just wanted to know if a person could really survive if he did not go to the toilet for two weeks. Believe me, we all have a good relationship with my father. To me he is as he always was. He is constantly giving me advice. Once it was about tennis, now it is about child-raising, about what, in his opinion, I should do better as a father.
You have won everything in your 20 years as a pro, all the important tournaments, the Olympic gold medal. You became the top-ranked player in the world. And now you claim in your book that you hated playing tennis.
To understand me, you have to be able to imagine the pressure under which I lived even as a little boy. In our house the atmosphere always depended upon whether I trained well or badly, whether I won or lost. Losing meant that things were bad for all the others, because my father did not accept defeat under any circumstances. At the age of four I already learned that there were quarrels between Dad and my older siblings when they lost. When I watched them play games I was constantly afraid of them losing. They did not win often enough, and I was the last hope. I had talent, I won, but I hated everything connected with it.
At 13 you went to Florida, to Nick Bollettieri’s tennis school. Did the separation make things easier?
I didn’t want to go to camp. I was scared out of my skin. It was more like a punishment camp, sheer horror. And the worst of it was: 4800 kilometres separated school and home. The other kids could see their parents on the weekend, I couldn’t. I began to rebel, and suddenly I was rebelling on a global stage.
But a teenager who hates tennis would soon let everything slip.
You have to look at it this way: I am like an artist who refuses to go on performing when it hurts. I did not at that time accept tennis as a lifestyle. But all of a sudden tennis did provide a chance to make life somewhat more bearable. Trips with my brother, money, supper in good restaurants. But basically it wasn’t much different from jumping from the fire into the frying pan. The pain was just a little more bearable.
In Open, you tell us that at some point you decided to play only for yourself. When was that?
In 1997, when I was 27. I was so bad at the time – number 141 in the world; I had to accept a wild card in order to participate in a tournament in Stuttgart, Germany. Brad Gilbert, my coach then, couldn’t put up with my declining status. He asked me and the team to his hotel room and said: “We’re not leaving here until you make a decision. Either you stop, or we start all over again.” I thought, Hold on, you’ve never liked tennis and never less than at this moment. I didn’t like myself, and I didn’t like what I had achieved.
You had achieved so much by this time. You no longer had to work.
Precisely. I said to myself: “You can stop right now. You have everything you need: money, a wife, and finally you have your freedom. It doesn’t get any better.”
Exactly.
But then I asked myself: “How would it be if I were the only one to decide who I want to be as a player?” The key question was: Is there any reason why I should keep on playing? I had no answer at first, but then I founded my school . . .
. . . the Andre Agassi Foundation, which trains and supports children from difficult social environments.
In this school I could observe how a life changed, and indeed changed for the better. From then on I played for my school. I said to myself: “Tennis goes on being hard, tough for the head, but you are playing for something that lasts, that’s more important than your own needs.”
How do you educate your kids?
I am not a teacher, but I try to teach my own and the other children in my school to be sympathetic. We want to show them what it means to love those closest to you. Education, including character-building, means a huge expansion of possibilities.
Are you more lenient than your own father was?
I have clear ideas about how our children have to behave and how they should approach life. I hope they take on responsibility, for themselves, for others.
When do you become strict?
If my son does not listen, if he hurts somebody or does not behave properly, that makes me angry, very angry sometimes. If he then comes to me later, if he has learned his lesson or accepted punishment, we get along again in a normal way. He has to understand why I had to have a word with him. But he must not be afraid of any lasting emotional punishment. I demand a lot, but I also forgive a lot.
Your children are already financially secure for life. How would you teach them that people have to work hard for their goals?
They do not see us as parents provided with everything and living luxuriously. They can see every day how much energy and devotion I put into my school.

Your wife, Steffi, was feared as a tennis player for her perfectionism. You too were always looking for the perfect strokes. Can perfection be an everyday ambition?

A big one, a very big one, which we both have. In me this won’t change, either. When I decide on something, it has to be perfect, it doesn’t matter whether it’s in the kitchen, for the family, or in my business.

Would you say, I am living as a 40-year-old should live?
I feel like a 60-year-old.
Physically?
Even my heart and head feel older than 40. I’ve had some life.

Chandra Muzaffar: Palestinian should seize this moment

2010-06-12T11:35:00.000+08:00

I am now re-posting this very good article by my former Lecturer at USM, Penang. During my second year in 1975 he taught us a paper on "The issues in Malaysian Politics".

He is married to a USM alumna who is my super senior, a nice lady from Kedah. By the way he is polio stricken. At that time he moved around with a special walking stick. Now he sits on a wheel chair and being pushed around by his loyal and elegant wife.

May Allah give His blessings and Protection to this honourable man Professor Dr Chandra Muzaffar and all his family members. Ameen Yarrabul Aalameen.

CHANDRA MUZAFFAR:
Palestinians should seize this moment

2010/06/12
CHANDRA MUZAFFAR

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The May 31 incident when Israeli commandos killed nine activists on board an aid ship has generated a large amount of goodwill and support. The Palestinians should now capitalise on this tragedy to further their cause, says CHANDRA MUZAFFAR. IN the wake of the flotilla tragedy of May 31, are there signs to suggest that the struggle of the Palestinian people and other Arabs for justice and peace has entered a new phase? Are some elements of the shift more obvious than others? How should we encourage the change that may be taking place?
There are five signs that we may want to focus upon.
One, the flotilla has underscored the growing significance of people’s movements and citizens’ groups in the Palestinian struggle. In a sense, people’s movements have always been part of the resistance to Zionism.
It was people’s movements that first stood up to the intensification of organised Zionist colonisation of Palestine, following the Balfour Declaration of 1917. In the last 20 years there has been a proliferation of people’s movements and citizens’ groups in the Palestinian struggle, including groups that are part of the Palestinian diaspora.
People’s movements and citizens’ groups are a source of strength to the Palestinian cause. Since they are less constrained by considerations that inhibit governments from committing themselves totally to the Palestinians — considerations such as their relationship with the United States in an international system dominated by the West — these forces are able to adopt principled positions on behalf of the oppressed and dispossessed.

Though US and Western dominance is declining, there are still many governments in the Arab and Muslim world that are eager to project themselves as allies of Israel’s most devoted patron and protector. In such a situation, it is not surprising that people’s movements and citizens’ groups have been able to campaign with much greater vigour and vitality for Palestinian rights.
Two, the flotilla has also shown that the movement for Palestine is becoming more and more multi-religious, multiethnic and multinational.

There were a number of prominent individuals from outside the Muslim and Arab world in the six ships that were part of the May 31 flotilla and in earlier flotillas — the most notable of whom was the Irish Peace laureate Mairead Maguire. Equally significant, the active and extensive involvement of Turkish nationals has taken the Palestinian struggle beyond Arab boundaries.

The Palestinian movement should be encouraged to become more diverse in every sense of the word. It is when it embraces the whole of humanity that it will have the moral might and power to overcome Israel and Zionism, with their inordinate influence over US elites s in every sphere of life.
Some Muslim groups that tend to see the Palestinian struggle in exclusive religious terms will have to learn to appreciate the importance of an all-encompassing movement that transcends the Muslim ummah.

Three, the flotilla episode has also highlighted the value and virtue of peaceful, non-violent protest. The flotilla was a protest against the inhuman, unjust, illegal, blockade of Gaza imposed by the Israeli regime since 2007. None of the boats was armed. None of the passengers carried weapons.

It was the barbarism of the Israeli commandos who hijacked the lead ship, the Mavi Marmara, in contrast to the humanitarian mission of the flotilla that has created so much moral outrage. When stark violence is employed to crush peaceful protest, human sympathy is transformed into human solidarity with the victim. It is because the Israeli regime under Benjamin Netanyahu knows that non-violent resistance to Israeli power has tremendous psychological impact upon people that he is going all out to convince the world that the Mavi Marmara activists were violent.

As non-violent opposition to the Israeli regime gathers momentum, as rejection of Israel’s arrogance and intransigence becomes a global phenomenon, it will be totally isolated in the international arena. Israel’s isolation brought about through its own haughtiness will eventually compel its protector, the US, to force Israel to change its policies and to recognise the legitimate rights of the Palestinians.

This is why Palestinian freedom fighters themselves should not at this critical juncture undermine their struggle by resorting to acts of senseless, mindless violence. Killing Israeli civilians or indulging in revenge for its own sake will not advance the Palestinian cause. The goodwill and support generated by the flotilla tragedy should be harnessed to the hilt to strengthen the struggle.

Four, as a consequence of the flotilla episode, advocates of Palestine should step up efforts to tell the world their story. An oppressed people who have justice on their side should not hesitate to convey the truth to millions who still do not know how the Palestinians became the dispossessed, how Zionism and colonialism conspired to deprive them of their land, how the UN betrayed its own Charter and the inalienable right of the Palestinians to self-determination in order to create the state of Israel, and how over the last 62 years through wars, expulsions, usurpation of land, and territorial expansion, successive Israeli regimes have sought to cleanse an ancient land of its indigenous population.

Compared with Israel and the Zionist propaganda machine, whose tentacles extend to every nook and cranny of the planet, the Palestinians have been rather ineffective in sharing their pain and anguish with their fellow human beings.

It is not only the Palestinian case that should be put across with intelligence and eloquence; Israeli manipulations and machinations, its distortions and fabrications, its atrocities and injustices should be disseminated as widely as possible.

Five, if the flotilla tragedy has succeeded in bringing almost the whole of the human family together in condemnation of the Israeli action, can it help to unite the two warring Palestinian groups? Is there anything to suggest that the Palestinian Authority that administers the West Bank and Hamas that is in charge of Gaza, will now bury the hatchet?

If PA and Hamas cannot work together, if their feud continues unabated, will all the other changes that we have talked about here mean anything at all? Without unity and cohesion, without a single overriding purpose that transcends group interests, what hope is there for the Palestinian struggle?

Palestinian leaders from the PA and Hamas should realise that if they do not turn to one another in amity, the flotilla tragedy of May 31 might not be a turning point in the Palestinian struggle for justice and peace.

Dr Chandra Muzaffar is president of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST) and professor of global studies at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang

I Remember Yusuf Islam

2010-06-08T05:39:00.000+08:00

I Remember Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, on the Sixties, early fame and the wave that saved his life.

By YUSUF ISLAM

Photo: Yusuf Islam

I remember . . . the restaurant my parents owned on Shaftesbury Avenue in London. My father was always up before dawn, getting in provisions. He was a hardworking man and we all learned from his example. My older brother, sister and I did every job you can imagine – chef, waiter, kitchen porter, washer-up. My father was originally from Cyprus but he had travelled the world before settling in London. My mother was Swedish and was a nanny in the UK. They met on a night out in the capital.

. . . the bright lights of the West End, the coffee bars, cinemas and theatres. Living in the centre of London quickly made me streetwise and opened me to its influences – musical and otherwise.

. . . that the Merseybeat inspired me and that by the time the Beatles appeared on the scene every-thing seemed possible. In the Sixties, people were full of hope for the future.

. . . my father gave me £8 [now $12] to buy my first guitar. But I found it hard to sing anyone else’s songs – there were so many chords! So from day one I started to write my own and they were different from what was out there at the time, more angular and lyrical. Songwriting is a craft and I have a knack of being able to tell stories this way, stories with a little twist to them.

. . . my first recording session in 1966. I played to the head of Decca Records and they decided to make “I Love My Dog” and “Matthew and Son”, two of the first releases on their progressive Deram label. It was my lucky break and mainly thanks to the producer Mike Hurst, who was one of the Springfields [with Dusty Springfield and her brother Tom]. He helped me scrape enough money together to fund the session. I was only 18, but he was convinced I had something special.

. . . two years later I was struck down with a life-threatening case of tuberculosis and dragged off to a hospital in the Sussex countryside. I’d been working really hard and over-doing everything. As I lay alone on my back, day after day, looking at the woods outside, something happened within my soul. I knew that there was more to life than what I’d been doing; there was a part about the spirit. By the time I recovered I had a whole new bunch of songs and a new vision.

. . . playing some of my new songs, including “Father and Son”, to Chris Blackwell of Island Records. He was overwhelmed and I signed with him in 1970. Paul Samwell-Smith of the Yardbirds became my producer and put me together with Alun Davies who complements me so well on guitar. We made a good contrast on stage – my dark curls and beard against his straight blond hair. Alun is a steady, earthy type while I’m more moonlit. Our relationship has endured for nearly 40 years.

. . . there was a lot of money around and things got more and more commercial. I made it big in the US but found it hard to balance my spiritual quest with my musical one. Playing live in front of 40,000 people isn’t conducive to much self-reflection.

. . . the wave that saved my life. I was staying with a friend in Malibu in 1976 and the sea looked so alluring I went for a swim. Suddenly I was caught in a riptide and it was impossible to swim back. My faith jumped right up to my heart and I called out, “God! Save me and I’ll work for you!” At that moment a friendly wave came from behind and swept me safely to shore. I felt like I’d been given a second chance.

. . . reading the Qur’an for the first time and how it changed my life forever. My brother gave me a copy for my birthday. I’d studied many other religions and philosophies but this was a revelation. I found it so profound and started to apply the teachings to my own life. The more I changed my conduct, the more amazing life became. It’s hard not to follow the crowd but I started to swim in another direction. I converted to Islam in 1977, changed my name in 1978 and, because in Islam there is only one way to enjoy a partnership (a novel idea to me before then), I married at the Regent’s Park Mosque in 1979.

. . . the peace of mind I felt at becoming a Muslim, a peace of mind I still feel today. I have learned who I am. This had always been a problem for me – I’d changed my name and style a few times before. We are responsible for our own actions and their effect on those around us. Try it for yourself. Go out and swear at somebody and watch his or her reaction. Speak gently and kindly and the response is different.

. . . the day I put down my guitar. It was to be 27 years before I played it again. Instead of music I became involved in education and charity work. I realised I was in a position to contribute to children’s development, to educate them with heart and spirit. I was very proud when my first Muslim school got grant aid. I’ve tried to look at many different ways of reaching out, bridging the gap between perceptions of Islam in the East and the West.

. . . picking up a guitar my son had brought home one day and knowing the time felt right to return to music. I’ve released two albums since 2006, An Other Cup and Roadsinger. Although there is a very conservative Muslim view of the dangers of music – to do with what music might be used for, rather than the art itself – I believe it is something natural and beautiful. I discovered it was the Spanish Muslims who introduced the guitar into Europe some thousand years ago, during a gloriously intellectual period of music and art.

. . . when I was refused entry to America in 2004. [Yusuf’s name was flagged as someone with “ties . . . to potential terrorist-related activities” and he was deported.] I tried to turn what could have been a sinister episode into something light. I thought, “God wants it to happenso let it happen.” I believe it all came down to the confusion in the spelling of my name but the media had a field day with it. I’ve had to develop a tough skin and a sense of humour. In the old days, if someone didn’t like my music, I’d be a little hurt, but when you have to live with a whole load of people thinking the worst of you, you’ve got to stay strong inside.

. . . in my song “On the Road to Find Out” I wrote, “Well, in the end I’ll know but on the way I wonder.” It sums up my journey as Cat Stevens and predicted the Yusuf Islam of today. When you set out with a plan in life and it doesn’t go quite right, it’s because God has a better plan for you. I always try to remember that.

As told to Caroline Hutton

Billionaire convicts and inmates

2010-06-06T21:34:00.012+08:00

Bukan senang hendak berharta dan kaya raya ini. Matlamat tidak boleh menghalalkan tindakan. Sesuatu tindakan akan membawa akibatnya. (Every action will be met with a reaction).

Begitu jugalah jika harta dan pendapatan yang yang kita didapati adalah melalui riba' dan rasuah tidak akan mendatangkan ketenteraman jiwa yang abadi. Biarlah tidak terlalu kaya sangat asalkan kita tidak bergelumang dalam riba'. Kita bersifat sederhana dalam kekayaan kita.

Dalam theori material dialektisma mula-mula ada thesis yang dilawan oleh satu antithesis yang kemudiannya menghasilkan satu synthesis baru.

Sebagai contoh di Peranchis pada abad ke lapan belas dalam Revolusi Peranchis, gulungan feudalisma King Louis V1 digilotin oleh satu revolusi yang bersifat satu gerakan sosial dan politik yang radikal. Kemudiannya revolusi tersebut telah memakan dirinya sendiri. Pemimpin agung mereka Robespierre sendiri turut menerima nasib kena gilotin . Akhirnya timbul pemerintahan pimpinan Napoleon Bonaparte yang bersandarkan ketenteraan yang membawa keamanan dan ketenteraman awam. Rakyat Peranchis telah muak dan bosan dengan ketidakstabilan revolusi tersebut. Butir lanjut mengenai Revolusi Peranchis adalah seperti berikut:

The French Revolution (1789–1799) was a period of radical social and political upheaval in French and European history. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years. French society underwent an epic transformation as feudal, aristocratic, and religious privileges evaporated under a sustained assault from liberal political groups and the masses on the streets. Old ideas about hierarchy and tradition succumbed to new Enlightenment principles of citizenship and inalienable rights.
The French Revolution began in 1789 with the convocation of the Estates-General in May. The first year of the Revolution witnessed members of the Third Estate proclaiming the Tennis Court Oath in June, the assault on the Bastille in July, the passage of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in August, and an epic march on Versailles that forced the royal court back to Paris in October. The next few years were dominated by tensions between various liberal assemblies and a conservative monarchy intent on thwarting major reforms. A republic was proclaimed in September 1792 and King Louis XVI was executed the next year. External threats also played a dominant role in the development of the Revolution. The French Revolutionary Wars started in 1792 and ultimately featured spectacular French victories that facilitated the conquest of the Italian peninsula, the Low Countries, and most territories west of the Rhine—achievements that had defied previous French governments for centuries. Internally, popular sentiments radicalized the Revolution significantly, culminating in the brutal Reign of Terror from 1793 until 1794. After the fall of Robespierre and the Jacobins, the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795 and held power until 1799, when it was replaced by the Consulate under Napoleon Bonaparte.
The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution. The growth of republics and liberal democracies, the spread of secularism, the development of modern ideologies, and the invention of total war all mark their birth during the Revolution. Subsequent events that can be traced to the Revolution include the Napoleonic Wars, two separate restorations of the monarchy, and two additional revolutions as modern France took shape. In the following century, France would be governed at one point or another as a republic, constitutional monarchy, and two different empires.

Billionaire convicts and inmates

By Elena Torrijos – June 4th, 2010

re-posted courtesy of Forbes
by Keren Blankfeld

28 May 2010, 12:25 PM ET

Wong Kwong Yu, 41 (photo above), was once one of China’s most celebrated and wealthiest entrepreneurs. He was the nation’s richest person in 2006. Now he is behind bars, sentenced last week to 14 years in jail after having been convicted of insider trading and bribery.

Another former Asian billionaire could be in even hotter water. Thailand’s former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, was charged with terrorism this week. The Thai government claims he is responsible for spurring the anti-government Red Shirts during the violent chaos that inflamed the streets of Bangkok over the past two months leaving 88 dead. Thaksin denies involvement.

This isn’t the first time that Thaksin, who made his fortune in telecom, has been in legal trouble. In 2006 he was ousted from the Thai government and in 2008 he was convicted in absentia to two years in prison on corruption charges. He never made it behind bars as he was already out of the country when convicted, reportedly having fled to Dubai. But his family lost the bulk of its money, which was seized by the government. This time, if he were caught, the consequences would be graver. The former billionaire, who has told reporters from his undisclosed location that he did not incite violence, could face the death penalty.

Behind bars

These two tycoons are just the latest examples of a long line of ultra rich outlaws, outcasts and convicts throughout history. There are today at least three former billionaires behind bars in addition to Wong. They include Russia’s Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, who have already spent seven years in jail and are now on trial for additional charges. Khodorkovsky and his supporters have strenuously denied allegations against him, claiming he is a political prisoner whose outspoken criticism of prime minister Vladimir Putin cost him his freedom. Also locked up is R. Allen Stanford, the Texan financier accused (though not yet convicted) of running an $8 billion Ponzi scheme. Italy’s Calisto Tanzi, Parmalat’s co-founder was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2008 for masterminding Europe’s largest bankruptcy; he appealed, but the decision was recently upheld.

Rather than go to prison, other billionaires and former billionaires like Thaksin have opted to adapt to a life in exile or a life on the run from the law.

On the run

Joaquim Guzman Loera (“El Chapo”), the world’s most wanted billionaire, has a $5 million reward being offered for any information leading to his capture. El Chapo has been on the run for nine years after reportedly escaping from jail in a laundry cart in 2001. Even while on the run, however, he’s been making a fortune selling drugs through the Sinaloa cartel, one of the biggest suppliers of cocaine to the United States.
The Uzan family in Turkey, worth $1.6 billion in 2001, has its share of members in exile or in hiding. Just this April, Cem Uzan was convicted of various charges, including fraud and bribery. He’s reportedly in exile in France avoiding his sentence of 23 years in prison. His father, Kemal, and brother, Hakan, are also suspects in the case. The outlaw family has been out of billionaire ranks since 2004 when the Turkish government seized more than 200 of its companies in an attempt to collect an alleged $5.9 billion in debt.

At least three other former or current billionaires have spent time in jail including domestic queen Martha Stewart, who spent five months in prison for obstruction of justice, and mall tycoon A. Alfred Taubman, who was behind bars for nine months for allegedly rigging art auctions. Both have returned to their respective empire helms; Taubman, worth $1.5 billion as of our last billionaire list in March, even wrote a book detailing his time behind bars. Stewart is still a multimillionaire but no longer anywhere close to being a billionaire.

Bounced back

Indeed, sometimes convictions are merely temporary setbacks. Three Korean billionaires charged with fraud have all been pardoned and are now running their firms. Chey Tae-Won, chairman of SK Group, South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate by assets, spent seven months in prison after being convicted of accounting fraud in 2003. He subsequently rejoined his company as chairman and was pardoned in 2008. Samsung Electronic’s chairman Lee Kun-Hee was convicted on charges of tax evasion and ordered to pay $130 million in overdue taxes, but he was pardoned in December. He has since returned to his role as chairman of Samsung Electronics, one of the biggest electronics companies in the world.

Currently awaiting an October trial, Galleon Group hedge fund titan Raj Rajaratnam, is hoping to keep his life outside the confines of a cell. Rajaratnam, who is out on bail, is accused of being at the center of a massive insider-trading ring. Although he denies wrongdoing, one of the other accused ring members, Mark Kurland, was sentenced this month to more than two years in jail. But Rajaratnam has reason to be optimistic. This week his lawyer said the Justice Department and SEC are looking into allegations that prosecutors leaked nonpublic information to the media.

Charges of prosecutorial misconduct worked to another accused billionaire’s advantage this year. Henry T. Nicholas, Broadcom’s co-founder, faced two trials this year and a potential 360 years in prison. He’d been charged with 21 counts of options backdating and 4 counts of drug conspiracy. In January, however, a California federal district judge unexpectedly threw out the charges on the basis of prosecutorial misconduct. Nicholas didn’t even have to show up for his day in court.

Gaza Aid Convoy

2010-06-06T03:53:00.001+08:00

Below I reproduced the article by Dr M on the 31st May Massacre of civilian activists on board the M.V. Mavi Marmara by the Israeli commandos.

An article by

Dr. Mahathir Mohamad

on June 3, 2010 11:30 AM |

1. The Israelis claim that the activists on the M.V. Mavi Marmara had attacked their commandos with guns, iron rods, scissors and pointed sticks.

2. The last time Free Gaza sent a small boat to take relief supplies to Gaza, Israeli commandos boarded it and towed it to Ashdod.

3. The activists must know that the same thing might happen to them. But it is ridiculous to suggest that the civilian activists planned to fight against the well-armed and well-trained Israelis.

4. Claiming that the activists attacked the commandos first is equally ridiculous. The forces ranged against them were powerful and enormous, capable of sinking their boats. The Israelis have been known to ram supply boats with their armoured naval vessels. What is clear is that the Israeli's were the ones to attack first by dropping their commandos from the helicopter.

5. The Israelis claim that the activists seized the pistols belonging to the commandos. Again this is ridiculous. These are trained soldiers, wearing protective armour and most certainly skilled in unarmed combat. It is most unlikely that raw activists can disarm and seize the guns of the black-suited commandos.

6. In any case, shooting with live bullets against a group of civilians probably armed with wooden sticks is unjustified. The hazy pictures shown by the Israel propagandist of rods being used may not be iron rods at all. They could be wooden sticks as the pictures are dark silhouettes which cannot be identified as activists or soldiers.

7. Our Malaysian reporter who has been released and is in Jordan tells of wooden sticks and water jets from fire-hoseswhich were used by the activists. His story is much more credible. But knowing the Israelis, they will continue to lie about their criminal acts even if they are seen to be committing them by the whole world.

8. Incidentally, the Rachel Corrie is named after a brave 23 year old American girl who stood in front of a bulldozer which was about to destroy a Palestinian house. The Israeli operator of the bulldozer simply ran over her and killed her. This is the standard behaviour of Israelis. The much condemned Chinese faced with the same situation, stopped his tank.

9. It is no surprise that the Israeli commandos would readily kill unarmed civilians. This is the degree of their arrogance. Their sufferings during the holocaust has not made them better humans. They are worse than the Nazis.

Tussle over tycoon's assets

2010-06-06T01:37:00.002+08:00

Apa yang boleh kita pelajari dari kes Allahyarham Tan Sri Nasimuddin ini? Mereka yang ada dua atau lebih isteri penting menyediakan surat wasiat dan pembahagian harta serta merta sementara mereka masih hidup. Ajal tidak tentu bila Maut akan datang. Kalau tiada wasiat pewaris akan berebut-berubut. Apa jadi pada kita yang dalam kubur itu? Bukankah kita akan tersiksa dalam kubur angkara harta dan kekayaan kita sendiri.

Maka itu ada hadith yang menyatakan bahawa anak, isteri/isteri-isteri dan harta kita akan menjadi fitnah (bebanan) kepada kita bila kita mati. Kematiaan bila-bila boleh berlaku dan Malaikat Maut bila-bila masa sahaja boleh mendatangi kita. Sebagai mengelakkan apa-apa masalah selapas kita mati, eloklah kita cepat-cepat buat wasiat pembahagian harta kita mengikut hukum Farait. Wallahu A'lam.

The lawsuit claims that Mr Nasimuddin, who died in the US in 2008, had promised to hand over a few companies to Madam Rokiah and her children. -- PHOTO: THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

KUALA LUMPUR - THE second wife of Tan Sri Nasimuddin Amin, the founder of Malaysian automobile giant Naza Group, has filed a legal suit to claim RM350 million (S$150 million) and properties in Malaysia and England.
Madam Rokiah Abdullah, 53, and her five children with the late Mr Nasimuddin are also suing for control of six companies now being held by his first wife Zaleha Ismail, 57, and her five children with the tycoon.
The lawsuit also demands that Madam Zaleha declare all assets owned by Mr Nasimuddin in the country and overseas since 2008, the Malaysian Insider news website reported.
It claims that while Mr Nasimuddin was alive, he had promised to hand over a few companies to Madam Rokiah and her children as a way to ensure that they could live independently. But he died in the United States in 2008 before the handover could take place, the report said.
Read the full story in Saturday's edition of the Straits Times.

Breaking the Mould - An Inspirational Story

2010-06-04T02:45:00.002+08:00

Through a pioneering treatment for club foot, Ugandan-born Canadian Dr Shafique Pirani (a Muslim) has brought hope to thousands.

By ISABEL NANTON

Dr Shafique Pirani. Photo: Erich Saide

Some parents believe club foot is a curse. Many believe the deformity cannot be corrected.

Atop a hill in Uganda’s capital city, Kampala, in a single-storey building below a corrugated iron roof, part of the Upper Mulago Hospital, 33-year-old Mariam Kemirembe is nursing her five-week-old baby, Shafique Gumisisiriza. Outside, mauve jacaranda-tree blossoms ripple in the breeze and a trussed live turkey, brought to the clinic as a gift, sits patiently in the shade. Inside, under the scrutiny of eight “orthopaedic officer” students, baby Shafique is receiving 20 minutes of treatment that will dramatically change his life. On January 18, 2009, he was born with the most common congenital physical disability in the developing world – club foot, which in almost half of all cases affects both feet. Left untreated, his club foot would remain twisted inward and become increasingly painful, so that when he started to walk, his body weight would be borne on the thin skin on the top of the foot. In a developing country such as Uganda, this lack of mobility would almost guarantee a lifetime of poverty.

Slowly circling the medical team at Mulago is a Ugandan-born Canadian, Dr Shafique Pirani, whose pioneering orthopaedic work may give the infant a better chance in life. Born in 1957, Pirani suffered a life-threatening bout of polio at age three, which left him with a pronounced limp. At seven, he went to England with his mother for some corrective surgery. There, they met an orthopaedic doctor who was himself disabled.

“Your son will make a fine orthopaedic surgeon,” the doctor told Pirani’s mother. From then on, says Pirani, “Mum felt I could be something. Like any mother, she had been worried about what was going to happen to me.”

In 1972, when Pirani was 15, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin forced out the country’s Asians. Initially, the Pirani family went to England, then settled in Canada in 1973. In 1982, Pirani graduated with a medical degree from the Charing Cross Hospital Medical School in London, England, then he moved to Vancouver to train at The University of British Columbia as an orthopaedic surgeon. He went to The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto from 1990 to 1991 to become a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon. It was here that he became fascinated with the problem of club foot, which at the time was thought to be treatable only with major surgery. He subsequently returned to British Columbia, where he began his practice at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster.

In 1996, Pirani read a book by Dr Ignacio Ponseti, a highly respected paediatric surgeon from Iowa. For decades, Ponseti had advocated a method of fixing club foot by applying a series of casts to babies’ feet soon after birth, since the foot of a newborn is predominantly cartilage, then applying a brace, so that surgery was not necessary. Pirani tried it, found that it worked just as well as – if not better than – surgery, and became a passionate advocate of the Ponseti Method, incorporating it into his practice. He hasn’t performed club-foot surgery on a child under two since 2000.

In the land of Pirani’s birth, the health system had become severely compromised. Among the victims were almost 10,000 children with untreated club foot. These kids were a familiar sight, hobbling on turned-in feet or leaning on crutches, watching from the sidelines as their friends played soccer, danced and ran around the schoolyard.

On a family visit to Kampala in 1998, Pirani breakfasted with Canadian paediatric orthopaedic surgeon Dr Norgrove Penny, who said he had been operating on hundreds of Ugandan children with club foot, with no end in sight. Pirani realised that by using the low-cost Ponseti Method he could help alleviate the problem. But with fewer than 12 orthopaedic surgeons in a country of 25 million people, club-foot care would have to involve the training of other health-care workers. Ugandans needed a way to detect and treat club foot that was low-cost and self-sustaining. In Pirani, Ugandans found a native son who, as a colleague says, combined “the abilities of a clinician, surgeon, diplomat and innovator.”

After returning to Canada, Pirani gathered pilot data and applied for a million-dollar Canadian International Development Agency grant, which he was awarded in 2004. Then, in collaboration with The University of British Columbia, the Ugandan Ministry of Health, Makerere University Kampala and the Christian Blind Mission, the Uganda Sustainable Clubfoot Care Project was launched the following year. Since then, hundreds of healthcare professionals have been trained to detect and treat club foot using the Ponseti Method.

Mariam Kemirembe’s five-week-old son, Shafique Gumisisiriza, gets the casts to correct his club feet. Photo: Isabel Nanton

Here in Kampala on this Monday morning, Pirani meets Sam Kyaligonza, 48, father of five-year-old Solomon Kyomuhendo, who is sitting on his lap. Pirani has asked Kyaligonza and Solomon to come to the clinic for a follow-up, so he can see the results of the Ponseti Method. Solomon’s father shakes his head. “When my son was born, I never expected this,” he says. “There had never been such a deformity in our family. However, my son was treated at Mulago free of charge from two weeks old, and now he is faster than a cheetah.”
Later, Pirani watches as members of the Ugandan orthopaedic team – Diana Mutuhe, 26, and Teddy Mutamba, 26 – expertly work on baby Shafique, gently moulding his foot to correct the deformity.
While Mutuhe holds the infant’s foot in the correct position, Mutamba applies cotton padding to the leg and then, beginning with the toes, applies four or five layers of wet plaster up over the knee, moulding the cast to hold the foot in the proper position. Most club feet are corrected with about five casts; before the final one, it’s generally necessary to cut the Achilles tendon, through a small incision just above the heel, to fully straighten the foot. The procedure is so low tech that when baby Shafique comes for his next cast, in a week, the first one will be loosened in a bucket of warm water. To prevent relapse once the feet are corrected with the casts, Shafique will be fitted with soft leather shoes held apart by a six-millimetre-long metal bar, which are made on-site. These will be worn 23 hours a day for two months, then only at night for the next four years.

Club feet have long been a source of superstition and misunderstanding in Uganda, according to Dean Nathan Wanaswa, contributor to Ponseti Clubfoot Management (known as “The Red Book”), now the manual used for club-foot correction by healthcare workers in the country. In that book, Wanaswa, who is a tutor for orthopaedic officer students in Mulago and a trainer in the Ponseti Method, writes, “Some parents believe club foot is a curse. Many believe the deformity cannot be corrected and are embarrassed to show their child in public.”

Now, radio spots in six local languages tell Uganda’s rural and city caregivers to check for a club-shaped foot at birth, that the condition is treatable and where to get treatment. Ten thousand training manuals, with detailed photos of the treatment method, have been printed.
“It’s not complicated,” says Pirani. “You need an orthopaedic officer trained in the Ponseti Method in every district, as well as plaster and braces.”

Dr Amandua Jacinto, commissioner of clinical services at the Uganda Ministry of Health, says, “This is one of the stories I will tell in my retirement, that club foot intervention as a public health programme has succeeded. Thanks to Pirani, a minimum of 1500 babies have been treated since the programme’s inception and it is expanding to include the whole country.”

Adds Stella Nyange, who runs the clinic office, “Results are real and tangible, bringing hope to mothers who are held responsible for the condition.”

At the Mulago Hospital’s Monday club foot clinic, Namusisi Daisy Masolo talks about Mark Musaazi, her six-year-old son. At birth, Mark’s right foot was clubbed and Masolo worried about how he would cope with a deformed foot. Persuading her husband that it was necessary, she travelled the eight kilometres to the clinic every Monday to have Mark’s foot put in a cast. “And now my mind is settled,” says Masolo. While Mark hops confidently on his right foot, showing Pirani his flexibility, she says quietly, “He doesn’t have a nickname at school and he wears regular shoes.”

SMALL OFFICE, HOME OFFICE (SOHO)

2010-06-04T02:24:00.000+08:00

The Need to Pile the Pressures on Israel and America

2010-06-02T14:56:00.005+08:00

It is with strong feelings that the time has come for the world opinion to stop Israeli commando's controversial and blatant actions to attack the Gaza Aid Flotilla in in international waters. What the Israeli commandos have done is as illegal under International Laws as what is done by the Somali pirates.

The Malaysian government had done the right move to issue a strong condemnation of the uncivilized attacks by Israeli commandos on the unarmed and peaceful actions of the Peace Activists to bring aids to the Palestinians in Gaza which have been blockaded by the uncivilized, cruel and wicked Israeli apparatus i.e. the police, solders and other para military forces. The Israeli military forces have all the arms supplied by their close ally the US government.

What do the Palestinian civilians have? Stones. It a one sided fight.

The events that happened on 31th May 2010 had changed the scenario and paradigm of the whole world opinion. It is just like Pearl Harbour attack by the Japanese in the World War Two and September 11 which saw the attack and collapsed of two Twin Towers of the New York World Trade Centre. This event was utilized by America to attack and destroy a great country called Iraq followed by attack on Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

The 31st May Incident has opened the eyes of the whole world on the cruelty being perpetuated by the evil empire called ISRAEL which has successfully thus far shielded their systematic cruelty and uncivilized actions by saying that the Palestinians are the terrorists.

May 31st event has released the genie out of the bottle and things from onwards has changed. Just like Sept 11 has changed America. Likewise May 31 has changed the world opinion on Israel. It is now clear to the world opinion that Israel is practicing state terrorism.

As such when the Malaysian Parliament sat this coming Monday every politicians from both sides of the political divide should condemn Israeli barbaric actions on May 31st without any hesitation.

The whole world including Malaysia need to pile on Israel and its ally the American government not to condone the barbaric actions of the Israeli action of commandos shooting on an unarmed group of activists in international waters. Israel as a state are behaving just like the lawless pirates in the international seas off Somalia.

For America to maintain its credibility to the world especially the Muslim world, they have to support thoroughly transparent investigations reporting directly to the Security Council what the events that happened on 31 st May in the international waters off the coast of Gaza , part of Palestinian West Bank illegally occupied by Israel since the 1967 War. Israel must be pressured go back to its border of 1948 when Israel was created out of the Palestine state when it was under the British Mandate.

Turkey has made the correct moves by recalling her Ambassador to Israel. She is also reviewing its relationship with Israel. The Turks are a proud race. And she has the history of being part of the ancient and powerful Ottoman Empire which ruled large parts of Europe and the Levant including the present Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan (which then controlled the Hijaz where Mecca and Medina were), for 800 long years.

As I have mentioned earlier the genie have been released from the bottle and the world have changed on May 31st. Like it or not it is not to the interests of the US to still support Israel blindly. Not after President Obama has given his Address to the Muslim world at the Al Azhar University on June 5, last year. Obama has to be credible and must walk the talk. Otherwise it is another rhetoric speech by an American President trying to wool on the Muslims and also to the whole world showing its double standards.

Many Americans have realized by now that Israeli national interests are not necessarily in tangent with the interests of the American peoples. But as all the mass media like New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and others in America are fully controlled by Jewish elements, the normal Americans feel very helpless. But things are slowly changing especially since Obama became the American President.

Hence the need for the whole world to pile the pressures on Israel and America to break the unholy bonds by Israel and its allies in America on the US government. This will ensure that the American will become a real independent referee in the Middle East or West Asia depending how you look at it and not pro Israel as she is now.

Raduan Md Taib

PNB, Khazanah to transfer 10 businesses to Bumis

BROAD ECONOMIC ECOSYSTEM TO INCREASE NUMBER OF BUMI VENDORS

Broad economic ecosystem to increase number of Bumi vendors

WHAT FOSTERS THE SPIRIT OF INNOVATION?

MANDAILING PEOPLES

[edit] Region

[edit] Clarification

ROADMAP TO BOOST BUMIPUTRA ECONIC PARTICIPATION

ROADMAP TO BOOST BUUMIPUTRA ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak launched the Bumiputera Economic Transformation Road map today to increase Bumiptera economic participation in the country.

MEMAHAMI WASATIYYAH

STUDY ON MSIA-SPORE HIGH SPEED TO BE READY IN 8 TO 9 MONTHS TIMEHS

PM LAUNCHES BUMIPUTRA TRANSFORMATION ROADMAP

MALAYSIANS ARE SENSITIVE TO PRICE INCREASES

We’re sensitive to price increases

Universiti Al Azhar Universiti Islam kedua selepas Universiti Al Zaitun

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Magazine publishing

[edit] Political views

[edit] On freedom of speech

[edit] Notable persons associated with the university

[edit] 19th – early 20th centuries

[edit] 1910s–1950s

[edit] 1950–present

[edit] Faculties

[edit] See also

Universiti Harvard dinamakan ikut nama John Harvard yang pertama membantu Universiti tersebut semasa ia mula2 ditubuhkan sebagai sebuah Kolej

Nama Universiti Harvard adalah sempena nama John Harvard yang pertama sekali membantu Universiti tersebut semasa ia mula2 ditubuhkan sebagai sebuah Kolej

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Statue

[edit] References

1Melayu, 1Bumi

Ayuh! Gerakkan segera 1Melayu, 1Bumi

Al Qaeda plotted 9/11 anniversary rail attack - U.S.

Al Qaeda plotted 9/11 anniversary rail attack - U.S.

Medical Course Freeze, No new progammes for 5 years to ensure quality Training

'Ya Allah, Kau makbullah (kali ini) solat hajat untuk Anwar

‘Ya Allah, kau makbullah (kali ini) solat hajat untuk Anwar’

Registration of New Voters to be focus of UMNO Divisional Meetings

Malay/Melanaus is 100% with PBB

'Protect MACC officers handling high-risk cases'

'Protect MACC officers handling high-risk cases'

A bad attack of the jitters among Chinese leaders, and dissidents pay the price

Banyan

A bad attack of the jitters among Chinese leaders, and dissidents pay the price

Tubuhkan Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja Untuk Allahyarham Ahmad Sarbini Mohamad

Anak Burung Merbah Dekat Kebun Rumah Kawan

Senior Custom officer in graft probe falls to death at MACC building

Senior Customs officer in graft probe falls to death at MACC building

Prosper and love thy neighbour

Prosper and love thy neighbour

Ikim ViewsBy Datuk Nik Mustapha Haji Nik Hassan

23 Religious Schools Get RM3.2million Federal Aid

New explosion rocks stricken Japanese nuclear reactor

They have 17 children and no regrets

Zurin heads the queue

IS MERITOCRACY RACIST?

IS MERITOCRACY RACIST?

Umat Islam Diminta Bertenang?

Pendapat DRT: Mengapa bila Rumah Ibadat Agama lain di cemar semua pemimpin Negara berpusu datang menziarahi. Tapi bila Rumah Ibadat Islam dicemari tidak pula ramai yang datang melihat keadaan. Adakah Rumah Ibadat Islam ini kurang Mulia kah?

Umat Islam diminta bertenang?

The Legacy Of The Mandailing Mansion

1 of 4

Denda RM500,000 jika tipu sijil dan logo halal

Denda RM500,000 jika tipu sijil dan logo halal

Malay Unity and the role played by Perak Mufti

Mufti plays role of mediator

INSIGHT: By JOCELINE TAN

MIDA DIJENAMA SEMULA, PUSAT SEHENTI PELABUR

MIDA dijenama semula, pusat sehenti pelabur

Married GROs Cought. These GROs are Married or they went through Marriages of Convenience ??

Married GROs caught. These GROs are Married or they went through Marriages of Convenience ??

Show Racists The Red Card

Thursday July 15, 2010

Show racists the red card

Along The WatchtowerBy M. VEERA PANDIYAN - THE STAR

Lebih Ramai Cari Hartanah Untuk Pelaburan

Ikim Views
By Datuk Nik Mustapha Haji Nik Hassan

Along The Watchtower
By M. VEERA PANDIYAN - THE STAR

By DR WAN AZHAR WAN AHMAD
Senior Fellow/Director, Ikim

CHANDRA MUZAFFAR:
Palestinians should seize this moment